Budgeting for 2009 is certainly a nail-biting experience, particularly with all the upheaval in the automotive and financial sectors. Instead of viewing the rapid decline in print advertising as a given, look at developing combination print/online bundles that enable your customers to maintain a presence in print while recognizing the migration of eyeballs from print to online.

Reducing the rate of decline of print linage is going to be extremely critical over the next 18 months, as many publications haven’t fully develop plans to transition their customers to online. By developing bundled solutions, you can focus on selling brand solutions rather than product solutions. Make sure that all your salespeople offer total solutions that include print and online, rather than simply print.

Keep this in mind: don’t devalue your online offerings by saying they are “free with the purchase of your print advertising.” That type of pitch will permanently relegate your online advertising as an afterthought and put you in a difficult situation when it comes time to shift primarily to online. Instead, ask that your sales team sell packages that never include just print. Train them to say, “You will generate more sales with a bundled solution that reaches your prospects, both in print and online. This will touch a larger group of prospects and ensure that your message is more effective in generating leads for your business.”

Make sure that your entire staff understands that it’s not the delivery method that defines your product; rather, it’s the content. Someday we’ll be looking at the internet as the old way of delivering information, and we’ll be fretting during our 2029 budgeting process about how we transition our customers from the internet to a new delivery method.