Regional Press Outperforms UK Media Growth

Regional newspapers saw ad revenue rise by 1.3%, or £9 million, year on year in Q3, whilst the full year is forecast to show 2.0% growth. The moving annual total (MAT) for the regional press also displayed the largest relative rise across all media, increasing by 5.4%. Outdoor and transport had the second largest increase of 2.1%, with magazines the only other media to show MAT growth.

One of the reasons that regional press has faired better than other media in the advertising downturn is that advertisers have to make their ‘advertising pound’ work harder and so have turned to regional papers’ more efficient targeting, according to the Newspaper Society.

Q3 UK Advertising Spend And Share Comparisons
	Q3 2000 (£m)	% share	Q3 2001 (£m)	% share	% change (spend)	% point change (share)
TV	884	30.2	781	28.6	-11.6	-1.6
Regional newspapers	690	23.6	699	25.6	1.3	2.0
National newspapers	506	17.3	456	16.7	-9.9	-0.6
Magazines	536	18.3	504	18.4	-6.0	0.1
Outdoor & transport	180	6.1	175	6.4	-2.8	0.3
Radio	129	4.4	119	4.4	-7.8	0.0
Total adspend	2,924	100.0	2,734	100.0	-6.5	0.0
Source: Advertising Association

Moving Annual Total Spend To Q3 2001
	MAT Q3 2001 (£m)	% change
TV	3,667.4	-6.8
Regional newspapers	2,833.1	5.4
National newspapers	2,175.2	-0.8
Magazines	2,019.5	1.8
Outdoor & transport	701.5	2.1
Radio	506.4	-2.9
Source: Advertising Association, 01/02

Television, by comparison, fell by 11.6% during Q3 and is expected to end the year 10.7% down. TV’s MAT to Q3 was down by 6.8%. Radio, meanwhile, continued its downward trend with spend off 7.8% in Q3 and expected to be 7.9% for the full-year.

The overall display market – excluding cinema, direct mail and directories, for which data are unavailable – will decline by 4.6% in 2001, says the AA.

UK Advertising Forecasts
	2001 (£m)	YoY % Change	2002 (£m)	% Change 2000-2002	YoY % Change
Television	3,525	-10.7	3,520	-10.9	-0.1
Regional newspapers	2,818	2.0	2,794	1.2	-0.9
National newspapers	2,116	-5.4	2,164	-3.3	2.3
Magazines	1,989	-1.5	1,985	-1.7	-0.2
Outdoor & transport	695	-0.3	714	2.4	2.7
Radio	493	-7.9	514	-4.1	4.3
Total adspend	11,636	-4.6	11,691	-4.2	0.5
Source: Advertising Association, 01/02

Regional also increased its share of advertising by 2.0% points to take 25.6% of the pie. TV’s share declined by 1.6% points, but remained the largest medium with 28.6%.