News Release

The NS has set up the Portfolio Audience Group, a small group of regional press research, circulation and readership experts who, under the chairmanship of Mark Rix of the Manchester Evening News, have been tasked by the Society’s Marketing Committee to achieve a system of audience measurement and reporting which reflects the wider portfolio of print and online, paid-for and free platforms which now makes up the regional press.

 

Matthew Merrett, associate director of Regional Media at OMD, said: “Everyone now agrees that if you want to target a certain locality you don't just use the local paper anymore, you consider the local magazines, website etc. As regional media experts we can recognise a good local product when we see one but it can be difficult to convince clients without any hard data to back it up. The news that the NS is working on a multi-layered geographical audience coverage system comes at a perfect time for the regional industry. To be able to prove the combined effect of using the different local media together is exactly what we need and can only be a good thing as far as local advertisers are concerned.”

 

ABC, which will be releasing circulation figures for regional press paid and free newspaper titles tomorrow, (31 August), has set up a Brand Reporting Taskforce to explore how to develop ABC as a currency that reflects the expansion of today’s media businesses. The NS is represented on the taskforce.

 

With major changes at regional press centres in the past year – from the launch of a part-paid, part-free distribution model at Manchester, and development of Metros and commuter Lites, to the blurring between evening and morning titles – it has become increasingly difficult to analyse ABC circulation data within the current framework (morning, evening, paid weekly, free weekly, ABC bulk) in any meaningful way.

 

Instead, the NS is focusing on its regional press media portfolio case studies, with 28 now available on the NS Website. These case studies show advertisers and agencies how publishers are broadening their platforms beyond the core daily and weekly newspaper products, to produce supplements, niche publications, lifestyle magazines and websites, as well as branching into radio, TV and other communications methods.

 

In this way, they are able to reach groups of consumers that might not have read a traditional newspaper, providing deeper penetration of the local market for advertisers, as well as detailed targeting for promotional campaigns, particularly through niche publications and leaflets.

 

The latest NS Annual Industry Survey has shown a massive increase in the number and variety of platforms offered by regional press publishers. As well as 1,300 core regional newspaper titles, the number of regional press websites increased from 509 in 2004 to 828 in 2005, while the number of stand-alone magazines and niche publications has grown from 400 to nearly 600. The number of regional press owned radio stations grew from 20 to 28. There were 16 launches of new regional newspaper titles.

 

“The regional press is extending its audience reach across a rapidly-growing portfolio of newspapers, websites, niche magazines and broadcast channels,” said David Newell, director of the Newspaper Society. “Readers can obtain local news, information and entertainment on the move and in a way that fits their changing lifestyles and reading habits. We have seen major investment in new product development and innovative systems over the past year. The challenge for publishers and the NS is to develop a robust system of multimedia audience measurement which gives advertisers and agencies more meaningful figures.”

 

The regional press is the largest print advertising medium and a £3 billion advertising medium, second only to TV. The core newspapers alone are read by over 40 million adults, and people trust what they read. Research has shown that people consider the regional press to be the most relevant media to their own lives, and 71% of people act on the advertising, (the wanted ads).

 

Recent research by GFK NOP demonstrated that ad avoidance isn’t an issue in the regional press, as people actively look for advertising in the medium and see it as a valuable part of the product offering. They turn to the regional press for information they can trust when they are in the market to buy, and feel that brand advertising has an important place in regional media.

 

 Regional Press Portfolio Case Studies

 Digital Innovation in the Regional Press

 Portfolio Audience Group

 Annual Industry Survey

 What Agencies Think

 

 

For more information please contact Martha Dunlop on 020 7632 7424 or Lynne Anderson on 020 7632 7421; e-mail: martha_dunlop@newspapersoc.org.uk or lynne_anderson@newspapersoc.org.uk.

 

The Newspaper Society, the voice of Britain's regional and local press, represents around 1,300 daily and weekly, paid-for and free, newspaper titles in the UK.