Newspapers increase ad share despite circulation decline

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 27-May-08, 11:20

LONDON - The UK's national newspapers increased their ad market share last year despite experiencing declines in circulation, according to research commissioned by the Newspaper Marketing Agency.

Newspapers held a 14% share of the display advertising market in 2007, which was up from 13.7% in 2006 and 13.3% in 2005.

They now hold the second-highest share behind TV (holding 35.7%) after overtaking direct mail, which slumped to a 13.6% share of the market in 2007, according to the figures compiled by Nielsen Media Research.

The research also showed that the national newspapers' share of ad revenue in the food and cosmetics categories, in which the NMA conducts insight research, had grown by 3% or more from 2003 to 2007.

Food advertising in national newspapers equated to 8.2% of the category's total ad spend in 2007, which was up from 3.6% in 2003.

An NMA spokesman said: "Our rigorous research programme has produced a body of evidence for the effectiveness of national newspaper advertising, and we have worked with agencies and advertisers to improve understanding of how to make the best use of newspapers.

"This is especially true in brand building, a role for which newspapers were often not considered in the past."

The NMA is funded by most of the national newspapers, including the Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, the Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Times and the Daily Telegraph.

Comments

Amanda Scriver - 30/05/2008

While newspaper circulation has decreased, it’s not necessarily due to failure or a complete shift away from the medium. Some of the decline is actually business oriented—things like voluntary circulation cutting to outlying areas because of escalating fuel costs. Diego Vasquez wrote an article (http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Newspapers_24/Why_papers_are_still_a_good_media_buy.asp) about this based on a Q&A with Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for the Poynter Institute. There seems to be a lot more to the circulation story than we think, but one thing that’s certain is the only real way to tell what’s going on is through the use of audited circulation statements. Though there may be a shift to online media, it only reinforces the need to develop a realistic audit processes for that medium. We’ve been working with a group called Buy Safe Media (http://www.buysafemedia.com ) and they’ve got some good info on the value of audited media.