Insight Analysis: National Papers’ Display Pages Hold Strong
Not a day goes by at present when there isn’t some mention of the dotcom boom fall-out or the advertising slowdown that have plagued media companies so far this year. Revenues at ITV have been particularly hard hit as recent figures from Granada and Carlton have shown. Shares tumble; brokers downgrade; media-land sulks.
Of the 19 national papers shown here, 13 saw their average display pagination rise between November 2000 and April this year, compared to the same period last year. The Sunday papers were particularly strong with only the News Of The World and the Independent On Sunday showing fewer display ads than the previous year.
Until recently the two Independent papers had been struggling to pick up their newsstand sales. This is perhaps reflected in their falling ad display pagination here – the Indy dropped 6.9% to 391 pages in the month; the IoS was down 10.3% to 191 pages. Conversely, the Daily Star, which has seen circulation rise by over half a million copies for the period, increased its ad pages by 38.0% from 289 to 399 display pages a month.
The Financial Times, which is enjoying a long-standing period of strong circulation growth, saw display pagination grow by 7.2% to 481 pages a month; over the same period daily sales were up 8.0%. The FT seems to be weathering the slow-down in tech advertising (particularly from US companies) pretty well at present.
The Daily Telegraph saw a slight dip in display ads – down 3.5% on average – whilst its circulation fell 1.5% for the six month period.
The Daily Mail carries more display advertising pages a month – at an average of 719 – than all the other nationals. It had a display to editorial ratio of 34:66 in April – the highest of the dailies. Its sister Sunday paper offered the highest display:ed ratio of all the national papers, at 54:46, according to ACNielsen MMS data. By contrast, its ailing mid-market rival, the Sunday Express, had the lowest in April, at 19:81. The Sunday Express saw weekly sales drop by 4.0% in the six months to April, although display pages rose by 5.5% to 210.