Classified Is Vital, Conference Told

At the Newspaper Society’s Classified Advertising Conference, delegates were told that classified advertising, vital to regional newspapers, is under attack from all sides. Stuart Garner, chief executive of Thomson Regional Newspapers was the first speaker with an editorial background to tell an industry conference that classified was as important as news content in selling newspapers.

“Classified is news. It is a shop window of what is available or happening locally. Without classified we would not have newspapers. In my own company, for example, classified represents 46% of our total revenues.” He warned of the threats from independent free-ads publishers; over a nine year period, free-ad titles had grown from one to 55 last year. Sales and distribution had grown from 5,000 copies in 1985 to 360,000 in 1993. Newspaper Society president Gerry Holbrook said 1993 had seen the first real signs of growth for the industry since 1989, with total classified revenue for regional press topping £1 billion. Revenue was up one per cent in 1993, with industry forecasts for a 5% increase in 1994.

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