Regionals look to database to swell online ad revenue

by Danuta Kean, Media Week 04-Sep-07, 11:25

LONDON - The Newspaper Society’s launch of the Media Portfolio Database comes as a report from the Society showed that, despite investing heavily in their online businesses, only 2.5% of the regional press revenue comes from online advertising.

The new database enables advertisers and agencies to access information on a range of multimedia platforms linked to local newspapers.
It is searchable by publisher, newspaper, media type and subject matter through the NS and the Jicreg databases, according to geographical area.

The database was trialled by agencies including Universal McCann and ZenithOptimedia. Universal McCann’s Melissa Smith, head of regional press, said the initiative would be invaluable for media planners. “It should make things much easier for us,” she added. “It will be good to be given early warning of supplements and one-off specials, because we often find out about them really late in the day.”

Lynne Anderson, NS communications director, said the database would show the variety and popularity of regional newspaper websites. “What we are aiming to do with this is enable advertisers to plan their regional press campaigns across print, online and other media right down to the postcode of an individual title’s circulation area.”
Agencies also welcomed the latest set of regional circulation figures as a sign that the sector’s long-term decline was finally slowing down.
Although only a handful of regional dailies experienced increases in the first half of 2007, the double-digit falls of previous years were rare.
Of the regional dailies, the Scunthorpe Telegraph enjoyed the biggest year-on-year increase, up 3.5% to 21,262. Meanwhile, the Manchester Evening News saw a slide in sales of almost 25% caused by a move to a hybrid distribution model whereby copies are available free within the city centre and paid for elsewhere.
John Prentice, head of regional media at PHD, commented: “In terms of previous years, these latest ABCs are a far better picture. We have even seen a few increases, which we haven’t seen for a while.”