Newspaper Society uses new system to measure combined print and online reach

The Newspaper Society has launched a new way of measuring integrated print and online audiences, blogs Jon Slattery.

The society claims that the scheme, Locally Connected, reveals that local media websites increase the unduplicated reach of regional and local newspapers within their circulation areas by 14%, particularly among upmarket and core middle age groups.

Locally Connected has been embraced by seven of the largest local media groups - including Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror and Newsquest - representing 70% 0f the industry.

Slattery reports how NS president David Fordham, told agency planners, MDs, digital heads, clients, research experts and publishers at last night’s launch event: “More than 80% of adults read a local newspaper in print and ironically, at a time when our revenues have been under such challenge, local media audiences have been growing across multimedia platforms.”

He said people spend more than half their time within a five-mile radius of home and are increasingly interested in local news. “The local paper is still the first place they turn to – in print and online.”

Fordham added: “The development of a robust and reliable system of multimedia audience measurement has been one of the biggest challenges facing all media today. Locally Connected now gives advertisers a unique cross-media planning system, allowing them to effectively target local communities across the UK in print as well as online.”

Project leader and NS communications director Lynne Anderson said: “Both buyers and sellers were agreed on the need to move away from the historic focus on a newspaper’s paid circulation and towards a more meaningful measurement of total reach.

“Agency planners told us their clients were increasingly looking for multimedia solutions at a local level but that it was hard to convince them to invest without hard data to back it up.”