MRG Conference: Discovering The Reader Dynamic
Chris Banford, senior marketing executive at Northcliffe Newspapers and Joanne Willbraham, director of TNS Media, had the challenging task of convincing delegates at this year’s MRG Conference that there’s more to regional newspapers than stories about “cats up trees”.
Banford presented the results of what he claimed to be the “most ambitious” audience page traffic study ever undertaken in the UK. He explained that the research included detailed analysis for each of Northcliffe Newspapers’ main daily titles in an attempt to chart the shape of a typical reader’s voyage through a specific title.
He said: “It’s frustrating that local newspapers are often dismissed as dull and uninteresting. This research gets to the guts of newspapers to provide a guide to understanding readers.”
Willbraham went on to explain that 220 volunteers had their reading habits scrutinised to establish a picture of actual and claimed media behaviour. She told delegates that each of the titles surveyed maintained a high readership until page ten, after which there was a notable decline. Business pages, sports pages, family announcements and the TV section had the highest readership, alongside stories about crime, health, human interest and local events.
Respondents were categorised into a series of groups intended to reflect their readership habits. Committed readers were defined as those who read the entire paper; Scanners are more specific about what they read; Cherry Pickers only look at the headlines and Sports Fans read the back pages first.
Banford concluded by explaining that regional newspapers are complex products with multiple sections and voices appealing to a wide variety of people. He insisted that the study provided a unique insight that has challenged how editors’ and advertisers’ assumptions about how people use their daily papers.
He said: “This research has enabled us to work better for our clients and has resulted in better value for advertisers.”
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