Total Audience
For years, newspaper brands have been marketed on the basis of paid circulation – a traditional approach which fails to reflect fully the appeal and impact of a newspaper and, therefore, its true value to advertisers.
Readership numbers are becoming more credible but the key metric is total audience – a figure which includes the online audience as well.
‘Total audience’ takes Internet readers into account and, on a worldwide basis, shows newspapers to be a dynamic and growing category – attracting younger readers online and holding valuable older categories in combinations of online and print – with print of ever-increasing importance as age rises beyond 30.
The ‘total audience’ approach confirms the power and relevance of newspaper brands to advertisers as a far more efficient and cost-effective way of reaching a population in a designated target area than the Internet alone.
By adopting an integrated approach and being able to sell print and online as an integrated package as well as separately, national, regional and local newspapers can compete effectively and be successful in the changing media environment of the 21st century.
How can competing effectively be defined? By growth in classified advertising revenue and the integrated approach is the way to achieve this.
MatchWork fulfils this vital revenue-generating role for its partner clients. Our specialist software and web design capability create the branded online product which, alongside print, is fundamental to the newspaper classified advertising proposition to advertisers – but this is only the beginning of what we do. The MatchWork solution then involves constant interplay and cooperation between MatchWork and partner clients to ensure that the benefits of integrated print and Internet presence is maximised through appropriate and targeted advertising sales activities.
It is fundamental to the successful future of newspapers that they present their editorial content and advertising under a consistent brand identity which maximises the total audience and delivers optimised value to advertisers seeking credible multimedia exposure through a single transaction – only newspapers can do this but only if they have their own branded websites.
To achieve long-term success and growth MatchWork works alongside its clients’ advertising sales departments, pioneering and applying techniques for selling the combined product, through cross-selling and upselling.
This long-term working relationship, based on MatchWork’s frontline experience in many European markets, is vital to the delivery of the two critical objectives – audience and revenue growth. This not only involves upselling print classified advertising to the website but also capitalising on the unique opportunities that website traffic provide to generate additional advertising revenue through banner and other online advertising.
