The Newspaper Marketing Agency (NMA) is not helping national newspapers to prove their worth as important commercial and social tools, according to journalist and media commentator, Ray Snoddy.
Speaking at MediaTel Group’s latest seminar yesterday morning, Snoddy heavily criticised the NMA, saying its remit is too narrow-minded. “When I hear that all [the NMA] ‘s job is, is to prove newspapers are a preferred advertising medium and it has got nothing to do with marketing… I’ve never heard so much bilge in all of my life,” he said.
“If there is a threat to newspapers, and clearly there is, then they have to be marketed generically, they have to make the case why people should read a newspaper. Individual brand marketing will only target their products.
“Nobody is making a sustained case as to why newspapers are important and to say that has got nothing to do with promoting newspapers as a preferred advertising medium is nonsense. You can’t take such a narrow focus.
“Just because multi-billion corporations are too tight with their money and not funding the NMA properly is no excuse nor should that be justified. It has to advance on a much broader and better-funded front to make the case why newspapers are important as commercial tools and also as social tools.”
Stuart Taylor, commercial director at GNL and a non-executive director of the NMA, disagreed, saying he believes the body is doing its job very successfully, attracting more recognition than the RAB. “You need to keep proving why [newspapers] are effective for advertisers and I believe that is what the NMA is trying to do,” he said.
“The advertising effectiveness research that came out in April is singularly the most powerful piece of research that has ever been done on national newspapers. It proves that newspapers, in conjunction with other media, particularly television… will increase your sales and brand awareness.”
Mark Gallagher, press director at Manning Gottlieb OMD, also expressed concerns, saying he believes not a lot has been done to engage consumers in reading newspapers, especially young people.
There is a 28 page report on the future of the press available from MediaTel INSIGHT www.mediatelinsight.co.uk/reports (free to all INSIGHT subscribers), which includes long-term trends for national newspaper circulation and readership, as well as the latest advertising revenue and circulation forecasts and an analysis of current marketplace dynamics.
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