An international trend…
In Volume 6 N°4 MAY 2007 STRATEGY REPORT released by © World Association of Newspapers© the following was emphasised: “Locally focused news and advertising are the most powerful currencies local and regional newspapers trade on in 2007. Local strategy is so powerful, in fact, that national papers worldwide, and pure-play Internet giants like Yahoo! and Google, are now aggressively building local-level sales and editorial strategies to tap into the lucrative local arena.
The reasons are simple. Study after study shows that consumers make the majority of their purchases within a 5-kilometer radius of their home, and they rate local news and information on the top of their wish lists for reading material.
“Further, local news and advertising are among the only differentiators left as competitors fragment the media landscape and flood it with commoditized news that can be found in most places…” Canadian Research
This is also substantiated by a survey just released by the Canadian Newspaper Association in which 6 out of 10 Canadians say they prefer newspaper ads to TV advertising. 45 % indicate that there are some days when they read the newspaper as much for the ads as for the content. 66 % say they enjoy the advertising or product/service inserts that come with newspapers and 70 % search newspaper ads for information on the latest offerings and sales in their area on a regular basis. South Africa: an evolving society
South Africa is arguably one of the most class mobile societies in the world. And one of the most important indicators of social class is the area in which people live.
Consider the following: The proportion of the suburban population of the country more than doubled from 24.4% in 2004 to 48.8% in 2007 (FutureFact). At the same time there has been a move from the rural areas into the townships (33.3% to 37.3%). The survey further reveals that we live in a country where the demographics of suburbs and towns are constantly changing. Market shifts
Market forces, and the resulting initiatives by forward-thinking companies signal an industrywide shift to focusing on consumers at community level. According to the latest ABC circulation figures free community newspapers have grown by 34,9% in the last 6 years and paid-for community newspapers by 35,4%. One of the most prominent reasons for this phenomenon is that there has been a substantial increase in the demand for newspapers from South Africa's emerging middle class but also a growing need among all sectors to be informed about matters that affect them in their immediate surroundings. Sharing the knowledge
Media24 newspapers, as represented by Ads24, are market leaders with their regional and community newspapers, offering various packages, segmenting markets geographically and demographically, as well as targeting communities of shared interests.
It is part of the Ads24 philosophy to constantly monitor, research and understand the changes in our great country and then to share this knowledge with the marketplace we serve. In this spirit, we give you Compass24 which as you will see, confirms the international perspectives are as true in our own land. |