The latest PAMCo readership figures put publishers’ reach at 41 million readers a week and news brands at 22 million a day. Most news brand reading now happens on a screen, so if you are buying a page in print, the headline number is not the audience you are paying for.
What’s happened
On 30 September PAMCo, the body that measures how many people read newspapers and magazines in print and online, released its latest figures. Campaign’s report of the release put total weekly reach across publishers at 41 million readers and noted that PAMCo is currently updating its methodology. According to Newsworks, the marketing body for national newspapers, news brands now reach 22 million readers a day, with 18 million people reading them on digital platforms daily, rising to 31 million a week and 39 million a month. In total, Newsworks says news brands reach 43.4 million people a month, equivalent to eight in ten UK adults and ahead of Instagram on 42.7 million and TikTok on 30.7 million.
Why it matters to auction houses and other print advertisers
These are good numbers for publishers, and you will hear them from sales reps over the next few weeks. That is fair. They show that news brands still reach most of the country.
But look at what is being counted. PAMCo measures everyone who reads a brand anywhere: on a phone, a tablet, a computer or on paper. A half page in Saturday’s printed edition is seen only by the people who pick up that edition on that day. On Newsworks’ own figures, 18 million of the 22 million daily news brand readers are reading on a digital platform. The brand number tells you the title is healthy. It does not tell you how many people will see your advertisement.
For an auction house this matters more than for most. In our experience the people who consign to a regional saleroom, or travel to bid at one, are often the same people who still sit down with a printed paper or magazine. Print is where your advertisement gets read properly. So the figure you need is the print readership of the edition you are buying, in the area you draw sellers and buyers from, and that is a much smaller and much more useful number than 41 million.
There is a second reason for care. Because PAMCo is part-way through changing how it measures, we would be wary of comparing this release with the last one. If anyone tells you a title’s readership has jumped or slumped since the last release, ask whether they are comparing like with like.
This is the work we do before we buy a page for a client. We ask the publisher the questions the headline figure does not answer: how many copies of that edition are printed and how many are sold, how many go to subscribers and how many are given away, where they are distributed, and what the print readership is for that day and that section. Then we negotiate the price against that answer, and we do it late, when unsold pages are discounted and the publisher would sooner take a sensible offer than run a filler.
What we’d do
First, ask for three numbers for every title on your schedule: print readership, the circulation of the edition and day you are booking, and how many of those copies reach your catchment. If a rep can only offer brand reach, keep asking.
Second, work out what you are paying for every thousand print readers and compare titles on that basis, not on rate card or reputation. It often changes the order of the list.
Third, treat digital as a separate purchase. The online audience is real and worth having, but it is sold by the number of times your advertisement is shown, not by the page. If a publisher offers it alongside print, ask how many impressions will be delivered in your region and price it on its own merits. It is always worth asking whether it can be added to a late print deal.
How VCM can help
We check what a title really delivers in print before you commit, then buy the space late so you pay for the readers you get and not for the brand’s headline reach. 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 your current press schedule and we will tell you what those pages should cost right now, no obligation.
