Regional Media: Local press holds firm

Republic of Ireland - from Emap for £155 million. The figure is
higher than many analysts predicted. Johnston, it seems, is bullish
about the medium's future prospects.

The regional newspapers sector certainly has a solid track record. In
fact, it is the only above-the-line medium to have grown its adspend
every year, year on year, for the past 13 years. And according to the
trade body the Newspaper Society, regional press has held on to its
share - 20.4 per cent - of total advertising revenue while other key
media have lost ground.

Regional is the largest print advertising medium in the UK and figures
from the Advertising Association for 2004 show it enjoyed the biggest
boost in ad revenue for all print media, up 6 per cent on 2003, to
exceed £3 billion for the first time.

"Regional media is holding its own and advertisers see its worth at a
local support level," Mediavest Manchester's head of regional press, Sue
Davenport, says. "The publishers have started to listen to the
advertisers more. They used to dictate what you could do creatively. Now
they offer all sorts of crazy shapes and sponsorship strips that you
couldn't do before."

Regional newspapers continue to be "leaner and fitter" than their
national counterparts, and have invested heavily to improve the quality
of their products, MediaCom Accent's associate director, Les Middleton,
says. He also applauds their willingness to co-operate with each other.
Trinity Mirror and Northcliffe Newspapers joined forces to develop
standard advertising formats across groups - a move that you're unlikely
to see between, say, News Corporation and the Mirror Group for their
national titles.

Yet, Middleton accepts that not everything is rosy. "Circulations are
still falling away - paid-for dailies are losing some of their
circulation. They need to attract new, younger readers to replace the
ones that are dying off."

Publishers have responded by embracing other media, such as the
internet, mobile phones and specialist magazines, to reach audiences
that are fast breaking up. As well as 1,300 regional and local, daily
and weekly newspaper titles, the regional press now boasts more than 300
standalone magazines and niche publications, more than 600 websites, 23
radio stations and three television stations.

The aim is to make regional press brands the obvious media choice for
consumers and advertisers. This multi-channel approach - which is known
as "layering" - has brought about some profound changes.

Take the Manchester Evening News. The newspaper has been successfully
layering its markets to offer advertisers a portfolio of different
products and channels to choose from. There is its new afternoon city
Lite edition, Channel M television, websites, as well as youth
magazines.

"Our strategy is to become a true multi-platform, local publishing and
advertising business, deepening our presence in our core markets by
delivering content and advertising solutions across a range of media,"
Trinity Mirror's managing director of regional newspapers, Georgina
Harvey, says. "Our digital operations moved into profit for the first
time last year and are now growing fast."

"It's not just the printed word any more. It's all the things that fit
under the umbrella of the regional press," the Newspaper Society's
marketing director, Robert Ray, says.

Ray, the former managing director of Starcom Worldwide's Procter &
Gamble global business unit, joined the society at the start of this
year. The man known for his love of extreme sports has set about the
equally daring task of revamping the regional press' marketing and the
way it is perceived.

In Ray's view, it is essential to address the "wider social context" in
which local media sits - the pivotal role it plays in binding
communities and providing local information.

The Newspaper Society's myuk study of 2003 found that there is an
increased appreciation of local differences among people in the UK, plus
a growing level of interest in local news and events. Forty-eight per
cent of respondents said they were more interested in things that
happened in the city or town where they live.

Then there's Consumers' Choice V, a national consumer survey by TNS
Media, which gives evidence that people prefer to shop close to home.
More than half of adults do their grocery shopping within two miles of
home. Local newspaper publishers see in such figures a compelling
argument for advertising at a local level.

Recent Newspaper Society research found that, on the whole, people are
only prepared to travel 17.5 miles to get to work. Ray is keen to
commission more research to help clarify the importance of locality,
both in terms of media consumption and everyday life. "We're trying to
be a little more subtle and stealth-like without being apologetic," he
says. "I think maybe the regional press has been a little meek in the
past."

Middleton, who is a fan of Ray's willingness to meet key players in the
media industry face to face, agrees. He also believes some of the
newspaper groups should do more to keep agencies updated on the latest
figures, product initiatives and trends, rather than relying on sales
houses to do it.

"A lot of the youngsters working within agencies who look after a lot of
the money are not up-to-date on what regional media has to offer,"
Middleton says. "That's something publishers and the Newspaper Society
need to address. Robert Ray has got a bit of a job to do. The Newspaper
Society isn't at the top of everybody's list of favourite people. But
Robert is getting out there and talking to people, which hasn't really
been done for a number of years."

Recent figures released by the Advertising Association show that
regional press advertising revenue grew by 2.3 per cent in the first
quarter of this year, outpacing total press ad revenue, which rose by
1.4 per cent. The property sector and recruitment advertising are the
two biggest growth categories, up 14.8 per cent and 4.4 per cent,
respectively.

Below are seven stories of how it is done. Publishing groups will have
to keep innovating and layering their offer if they are to hold on to
readers.

KENT MESSENGER

The Kent Messenger is the flagship title of the family owned Kent
Messenger Group. The six-edition title is the biggest-selling weekly
newspaper in the UK, and continues to grow apace. Between 1994 and 2004,
its circulation soared by 43 per cent - to 57,450 copies - and ad
revenue has driven massive volume increments.

Market share is at an all-time high. But the paper is changing. It has
added sport as a fourth regular supplement (joining leisure, property
and cars), redesigned its news sections and a monthly business
supplement was added this summer.

THE CUMBERLAND NEWS

It's been a good year for local papers in the Lake District. The
Carlisle-based CN Group won the Newspaper Society's award for
circulation increases for its daily, the News & Star, and its flagship
weekly, The Cumberland News, has just been named Regional Newspaper of
the Year. Each title has its own branded website, a formula that has
helped to grow their combined print and web audiences at a healthy rate.
Both newspapers have invested in new layers of services for their
advertisers, leading advertising revenue growth to double that of the
industry norm over the past five years.

MEN LITE

In March this year, the Guardian Media Group's Manchester Evening News
launched MEN Lite, a free daily tabloid distributed to outbound
commuters between 4.30pm and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. "MEN Lite is now
the fourth edition of the Manchester Evening News," MEN's deputy
managing director, Mark Rix, says. Research has revealed that 80 per
cent of MEN Lite's readers are ABC1 with 57 per cent in the desirable
15- to 34-year-old age bracket.

Average reading time is 24 minutes, and the title is read, on average,
4.4 times a week.

EVENING GAZETTE

Teesside's Evening Gazette relaunched a year ago and the gamble has paid
off. It went from a broadsheet to a compact format, following a £14.6 million investment in a new press facility at Riverside Park,
Middlesbrough, by Trinity Mirror. With daily sales figures of around
58,000, the paper is the best-performing metropolitan-sized evening
title in the country.

Not bad for a 100 per cent actively purchased newspaper. The Evening
Gazette has also collected awards for its sales efforts, taking three
honours at the Newspaper Society's Sales & Promotions Awards.

EXPRESS & STAR

The Express & Star is the biggest regional newspaper outside London.

It averages 433,000 readers a night - 38 per cent of the adult
population within its marketing area. The title is also in the business
of retail, magazines, internet and commercial radio. A critical
development has been the creation of "editionised" platforms for
editorial and advertising that cover the Wolverhampton, Dudley and North
Worcestershire, Walsall, West Bromwich and Staffordshire areas. A £300,000 research project, which gives in-depth information about the
people in its heartland, is unique to the industry.

LIVERPOOL DAILY POST

Football isn't the only thing to recapture former glory in
Liverpool.

Its local paper has been given a new lease of life. A dramatic relaunch
saw the Liverpool Daily Post unveil several new supplements, hike up its
pagination and reintroduce the word "Liverpool" to the masthead after an
absence of 25 years - its return chiming with a new renewed sense of
pride in the city. The relaunch led to an immediate sales lift, and the
Trinity Mirror title's July-to-December ABC circulation growth of 4.2
per cent made it the best-performing regional morning paper in the
UK.

BARNSLEY CHRONICLE

Despite the area being hit badly by recession, during the past ten
years, the Barnsley Chronicle has increased its circulation by 19 per
cent and is now selling more copies than at any time in its 147-year
history.

Advertising volumes have also increased consistently over the decade,
including national display advertising. Research shows that the
readership profile matches the area's socio-economic grouping, but is
slightly younger than the area's age profile. It also shows that, in the
Barnsley area, the paper can claim to be read by more than all the
national newspapers put together.