News Release
|
News Release | |
|
27 August 2004
Advertisers have praised the regional press for driving product development and investing in new platforms. At regional press centres throughout the UK, the new focus is on extending portfolios to meet increasing demands from advertisers for relevant news and information at a time and in a place convenient to the audience. Simon Mann, group advertising director at the Belfast Telegraph, insists that the portfolio approach will shape the future of the regional press, saying: "The challenge is to provide smarter solutions. We want to present ourselves as a one-stop press-buying shop for Northern Ireland. If advertisers are looking for an audience, we have the products to reach it." The Newspaper Society has spoken to advertising directors and editors at UK centres, as well as some of their key advertisers. The message is clear - keeping up with the market is no longer enough. Innovation is key. A series of case studies, now available on the NS web site, shows the number of platforms offered by each of the key regional press centres now compared with 10 years ago. Comments from each of the centres describe the trends in the industry, the market they have evolved to serve, and how they see the future of regional press advertising. Some innovative new approaches outlined in the case studies include: the editorial projects unit at Archant with panels involving advertisers; extending the regional press brand to radio stations, as in Kent, or city TV stations, as in Manchester. Gary McNish at AMRA says: "The regional press are very much driving the movement to increase their portfolios. Advertisers are benefiting from a much broader range of platforms. Sales teams now deal in combinations of products, complementing an ad in the flagship title with the web, magazines, or other niche publications." Echoing Gary's optimism, Paul McGarr of Zenith Media said agencies were keen to work with a range of regional press platforms to target local audiences. He had recently done some work with Manchester looking at press, online and TV, and with the Eastern Daily Press in Norwich, but said such opportunities were fairly unusual. He says, "It is still quite rare but the clients really like it. We would definitely welcome more opportunities." To see the comparative tables of platforms and read comments from the centres in full, link to the case studies. See examples of the latest press coverage related to this article.
Notes to editors: Figures for regional daily and Sunday titles include the Scotsman, Daily Record, London's Evening Standard, Scotland on Sunday, and the Sunday Mail (Glasgow), which are reported by ABC as national newspapers. Regional press ABC and VFD data is released twice a year (February: for July-Dec figures, and August: for Jan-June figures). The analysis and tables ranking the top regional titles by region, circulation size and growth are produced by the Newspaper Society based on ABC/VFD data and independent audits.
For further
details contact: Lynne Anderson or Martha Leary-Tanner (press enquiries)
or Steve Brown (member enquiries at the Newspaper Society on 020 7636
7014, or e-mail lynne_anderson@newspapersoc.org.uk,
martha_lt@newspapersoc.org.uk
or steve_brown@newspapersoc.org.uk.
Press enquiries for ABC should be directed to Phil Borge at Eulogy on 020 7927 9999 or e-mail phil@eulogy.co.uk. More
information on myuk
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. The Newspaper Society is a member of UK Publishing Media: an £18 billion alliance of newspapers, magazines and books, which collectively represent one of the largest investors in the rapidly-expanding information society.
|
