Feature: Regional Publishers Must Work Hard To Attract National Advertisers
The Newspaper Society has been campaigning for some time to increase the profile of the regional press amongst national advertisers and their agencies. It is the Society’s long-term aim to gradually increase the percentage of national display advertising that regional newspapers take. However, this month sees the closure of The Word, a cross-company sales shop dedicated to bringing national advertisers to the regional press.
The Word was launched 11 years ago with funding provided from a number of the UK’s regional newspaper groups. In recent years, though, these groups have been consolidating and the strength and reach of their own sales operations have increased. The merger between Trinity and Mirror Group last year, for example, brought together Trinity’s Amra sales operation with Mirror Regional Sales to make Amra the largest national sales house in the country, with a market share of 20.0%. Indeed, the top four national sales houses for regional newspapers – Amra, Mediaforce, Northcliffe and Newsquest – command 58.8% of the market. There are more than 20 national sales houses in all.
Over the last couple of years the regionals have increased the proportion of their display advertising which comes from national advertisers, from 27.5% in 1996 to 29.9% in 1998. However, this may have slipped back slightly last year as a moving annual total to Q3 1999 puts the figure at 29.0%, according to the Advertising Association.
Zenith Media is the heaviest buyer of regional press, with a spend of £10.6 million in the year to June 1999. According to Emma George, associate director at the company, The Word offered national advertisers cross-company economies of scale, although she describes some of its practices as ‘a little strict’. “We’re disappointed that it’s closed as it sends out all the wrong signals,” says George. “It looks likes there’s been a failure of the industry to work together.”
Whilst the regionals’ revenue from national advertisers appears to be gradually increasing, the sector’s share of total national display advertising has actually declined over the last few years. In 1996 regional newspapers took 4.0% of national display adspend, rising to 4.1% in 1997 only to drop back down to 3.9% in 1998.
It is now the job of the Newspaper Society and regional publishing groups to push the benefits of the regional press either individually, or by setting up a new collective effort, if they are to raise their profile amongst national advertisers. “They will have to come up with a good alternative to The Word pretty soon,” warns George. “Trinity Mirror in particular are going to have to make more of a song and dance about what they’re doing if they want to keep the advertisers that were previously using The Word.”