Local newspaper advertising has a new set of audience numbers. Raid, which launched on 1 October, replaces JICREG as the place planners go to see who reads a local title in print and online, and it changes the questions worth asking before you book a page.
What’s happened
On Thursday 1 October the local news industry launched Raid, short for Regional Audience Intelligence Data. According to the launch announcement, it was developed by the research agency RAM Penetrace on behalf of local publishers and replaces JICREG, which will stay available as a legacy system for the time being. Raid counts online readers through tags on local news websites, recording reach, frequency and demographics, and uses readership surveys for print. The two are combined into what the announcement calls a total brand audience, with detail down to postcode level, more immediate data and less reliance on modelled readership figures.
Why it matters to regional auction houses and local advertisers
Local press is how a regional saleroom finds people with something to sell, and how a claims firm or a local business reaches a town. So the numbers behind those titles matter, and they have just changed.
There is good news here. Postcode detail is exactly what a local advertiser needs. A saleroom draws its sellers and bidders from a patch it can describe by postcode, and you should now be able to ask how many readers a title has in that patch. The promise of fewer modelled figures is welcome too. Put simply, that should mean more of what you are shown has been measured and less of it estimated.
There is also a catch, and it is the same one we flagged in this week’s PAMCo figures. A total brand audience adds a title’s website visitors to its print readers. If you are buying a page in the paper, only the print readers will see it. The headline figure tells you the title has a healthy following. It does not tell you how many people will see your advertisement.
The changeover brings its own risk. With JICREG still available alongside Raid, the same title can have two sets of figures, built in different ways. A change between the two is not a rise or fall in readership, and nobody should sell it to you as one. RAM Penetrace says the rollout will continue over the coming weeks and months, so we would expect the picture to fill in gradually.
Local print itself keeps moving. On the day Raid launched, Press Gazette reported that the Tameside Reporter in Greater Manchester was printing its final edition after 171 years, with its publisher pointing to rising costs and pressure on print advertising revenue.
This is the work we do before we book local press for a client. We ask the publisher which system a figure came from and when, how much of the audience is print and how much is online, and how many of those print readers are in the postcodes that matter to you. Then we negotiate against that answer, and we do it late, when unsold pages are discounted and a sensible offer is better for the publisher than an empty space.
What we’d do
First, ask every local title on your schedule for its Raid figures, split into print and online, for your own postcodes. If any number you are given still comes from JICREG, ask for the Raid one as well.
Second, rank your titles again on what you pay for every thousand print readers in your catchment. Lists built on habit or on last year’s figures often change order when you do this, and the titles at the bottom are the ones to renegotiate or drop.
Third, treat the changeover as a moment to negotiate. If a title’s print audience in your area looks smaller under Raid than you were told before, the price should follow it down. Price any online element separately, by the number of times your advertisement will be shown in your area.
How VCM can help
We check what a local title really delivers in print, in your postcodes, before you commit, and then buy the space late so you pay for the readers you will get. Have a look at how we approach print advertising, then get in touch on 0333 577 1848 or at James@vcmweb.co.uk. Send us the list of local titles you use and we’ll talk your plan through, no obligation.
