NRS Sectional Figures Awaited With Interest By Planners

Media planners and buyers believe that the NRS’s new supplement readership data will allow them to negotiate lower rates for supplements because it will show much lower figures than for the parent newspaper – the benchmark by which supplement rates have been traded in the past. Sections of the industry therefore believe that the new data, which could be released within three months, will tell them what they have long known but have been unable to prove to sales people.

Steve Goodman, press director at the Media Business Group, told Newsline that he believed some of the broader market sections’ readership could be 30-40% lower than the main newspaper’s, while more specialised sections may be 50% lower. Mentioning the Sunday Times he said that many readers would not even look at some sections. Stuart Gibson, media planning director at Austin Knight, also believed that while the Sunday Times‘ readership is “awesome”, one must question the percentage of its readers which look at its vast array of supplements. Goodman did point out however that some sections, while having a lower readership, will have other benefits for advertisers such as a sound editorial environment.

Roger Pratt, managing director of NRS, told Newsline that the new data was currently still being collected and examined for its accuracy.

…Mr Pratt, in response to the reported criticism from some quarters for the low figures among the July-December women’s weekly NRS figures *Row Threatening Over NRS Figures, told Newsline that he was baffled by the comments. He said he has received no complaints from anyone and the survey for the period had in no way changed from those carried out previously: the only query was regarding the figure for G&J’s Here and this was being investigated. Mr Pratt said that so far no discrepancies had been found in the data.

* Subscribers only

Subscribers can access the latest NRS round-up for July-December in Newsline’s Features section. Press Planner can be accessed by clicking here and choosing Press.