The Baltimore Sun Media Group yesterday launched an eight-week multimedia advertising campaign promoting The Baltimore Sun and baltimoresun.com. Developed in-house, this represents the first broad-scale advertising campaign The Sun has deployed in several years and includes television, outdoor, print and online.

The campaign features testimonials from a variety of people for whom The Sun has made a difference; long-time readers, people who have been featured in Sun articles and even one woman who was moved to write an op-ed piece by The Sun’s coverage of a high-profile local issue. The Sun’s power to inform, inspire and motivate has never been demonstrated more compellingly than in the words of these local residents.

“2010 has been a very strong year for The Sun, so it’s the perfect time to begin a new advertising campaign,” said Judy Berman, Senior Vice President, Marketing. “We’ve launched six additional weekly print sections, plus the new quarterly Sun Magazine that began publishing yesterday. Our circulation and readership trends are positive, and we also have gained many new users through our online and mobile products.”

In the past six months, The Sun has launched eight mobile alerts, two new email newsletters and an iPhone app. The Sun also has charted significant growth in website traffic, with an increase this year of 71% in local visits to baltimoresun.com and a 31% increase in mobile page views. This tremendous audience growth is a testament to BSMG’s strategy of providing the news first, whether consumers choose to access it in print, online or via a mobile device.

 Go to baltimoresun.com/useitforlife to view the television spots.

###

The Baltimore Sun Media Group, a Tribune company, publishes The Baltimore Sun, baltimoresun.com, 30 community newspapers and magazines, and a growing portfolio of targeted print and online products, including b and bthesite.com.  In print and online, the Baltimore Sun Media Group reaches 1.2 million readers each week in the Baltimore area, making it the region’s most widely read source of news and information. * Source: Omniture Site Catalyst, Aug. 2009-2010