So it’s not quite a Fleet Street paper, and probably never will be, but that’s not getting in the way of the local freesheet’s success. Despite covering wars between neighbours rather than countries, cracking the lid on a ring of crooks stealing garden statues rather than Old Masters, and doing it sometimes in rather questionable English, the readers keep reading, and the advertisers keep booking their space.
The local paper isn’t trying to take on the mainstream crowd because it doesn’t need to. It’s doing perfectly well just as it is, thank you very much.
“The editorial quality of a community paper is generally not the most critical element when looking at this medium from an advertising planning perspective,” says Jaco van Jaarsveld, a communication strategist at media independent MindShare. “For me, it’s about relevance to the reader. A local paper in a high-income area should have a better journalistic style to suit the community, but ultimately, local papers don’t need the same quality as the paid-for weeklies. What is important is that we as strategists and planners know that because of the local, personal content of these papers, they are well-read by communities.”
This is where the power of the community paper lies. “These papers aren’t ‘outsider’ publications coming into the area, but are part of the area, in many cases, an institution,” says David Hill, editor of Cape Community Papers, a division of Independent Newspapers that publishes 11 freesheets in the Western Cape.
“Because these papers are focused strictly on one geographic area, they’re able to deliver relevant news with little wastage for readers. So, when people open their paper, it is all about their neighbourhood, and they really love that.”
Jos Kupers’ FutureFact research has shown that South African society is increasingly becoming community focused. “And community newspapers are simply the best suited print medium to report on matters that are close to the hearts of people staying in a specific area,” says Peter Sidego, Media 24’s publisher of TygerBurger, MetroBurger and City Vision. He adds the importance of local news is clearly seen when looking at TygerBurger and MetroBurger readers, 93% and 88% of whom said they liked to read about local news, figures which far exceeded their tendency to read national or sports news.
So no matter how trivial a community news story may seem, it is not trivial to the people living there. Which is great for the publisher of the narrow-caste community title, since he has a virtual monopoly on this news beat.
“The same news you read in the daily paper will be duplicated in other papers, the internet, radio, and television. The national news beat brings with it a lot of fragmentation, with many media types focusing on the same information, allowing readers to access it from many sources. Yet there is always room in the household for the community paper, because it alone delivers the news pertinent to their personal lives in the community,” says Bruce Sturgeon, CEO of Caxton Community Newspapers, the biggest single publisher of community papers in South Africa. (Caxton partially or fully owns about 100 community titles around the country).
People’s interest in local news, and their subsequent close relationship with their local paper is, of course, a big plus for advertisers, and one of the reasons why some weekly community papers can attract more adspend than many big-name national weeklies. Locally relevant editorial content is the passport into homes for many marketers, and specifically retailers with call-to-action messages.
“The biggest selling point of community newspapers is perhaps the fact that they are seen by readers as a friend of the family,” says Esmé Smit, national sales manager of Ads24 Community Newspapers. “By using the community newspaper, local and national retailers get the benefit of arriving at every household in the area, at an expected, regular time every week, with a credible friend of the family. A message delivered in this way is more credible than the one which just arrives along with the junk mail.”
Sturgeon’s own research backs this up: “People prefer to receive inserts packaged with the paper, rather than separately in the mailbox. Another concern for marketers is that with more people moving into complexes, it’s also getting harder for a loose pamphlet to get through the high security and reach consumers.”
And if it’s a large number of consumers you want to reach, you can’t do better than catching a ride with local freesheets, which almost without exception boast high degrees of saturation within their coverage areas. “Area by area, they’re without a doubt read by substantially more people than any other print option,” says Sturgeon.
Caxton’s Newspaper Advertising Bureau’s (NAB) Roots research, for instance, shows that 83% of heads of households in areas researched in Gauteng read their local newspaper every week, compared to 13-14% reading the major English and Afrikaans dailies, and 25% a leading Sunday paper. “You’re getting around 80% reach with community papers,” says John Bowles, Joint MD of NAB.
It is this kind of reach which sees so many inserts for major retailers appearing between the editorial covers each week.
Piet Muller, Y&R Hedley Byrne’s media director, who handles the Pick ‘n Pay account, says the main objective for these advertisers is to reach as many of their consumers as possible, and get them into the store, in a very short space of time. A mix of daily papers, knock ‘n drop leaflets and community papers is called on to deliver the message – “dailies offer you immediacy, the freesheets offer you massive combined circulations, though do lack in stature. If you were to rely solely on the sold dailies or door-to-door leaflets however, your store traffic and turnover would suffer. It’s a case of knowing your market or store, and finding the right mix.”
And where high reach is the bait for larger advertisers, the benefit of geo-specific targeting brings in the smaller players, who Bowles says contribute about 70% to the adspend mix in local papers. Sidego likens a publisher’s network of community papers to a large rain cloud over dry land – “you only pay for where you want it to rain.”
Of course, the localised nature of these papers can make it more expensive for marketers covering more than one area. “Typically it is more expensive to take several ads in various community papers than using just one national newspaper, but your penetration into the market will still be greater,” says Janse van Rensburg. “So you can’t look at it from a mere cost point of view – you have to also bear in mind that you’re able to focus your attention more, and reduce your wastage, which are benefits which outweigh the difficulty of planning across many small titles to cover a larger area.”
And then on top of less wastage, add in less duplication. “There is a great deal of duplication between the individual major dailies, such as The Star and Business Day, and between major dailies and the Sunday press. This campaign duplication is unnecessary and inefficient,” says Bowles.
Sturgeon gives an example: “In Randburg, 83% of people read the Randburg Sun, and 26% read the best-read daily, but of the readers of the latter, 23% also read the Sun. So the only extra reach you get by going into the daily is 3%. That’s a very costly way of getting through to an extra 3% of people,” he says. If you’re trying to cover a market geographically, community papers therefore make good sense.
It is benefits such as these that allow the local freesheets to enjoy ad loadings averaging around 60%. And remarkably, this high ad ratio doesn’t put off readers or advertisers. Bowles says freesheets have been criticised for carrying so much advertising, but Caxton’s ongoing research proves that readers don’t have the same concerns. Readers separate out the inserts and put them on one side. They then read the paper, and then return to go through the inserts, which are seen as part of the package.
“Unlike advertising in some other media, readers don’t see the freesheet advertising as an imposition, but rather as part of the package, part of the reason they like the paper,” says Sturgeon. “They read it precisely for that mix of both local news and local retail and shopping information.”
And, adds Bowles, advertisers also seem unperturbed. “The most fickle advertiser is the retailer – he would very soon move on if the high loading was affecting the reception of his insert.” (Ads24’s Community Newspaper Research Study of 2003 showed that 55% of all reader respondents read loose insert advertisements regularly.)
Muller adds that clutter is an issue with any medium, not just the freesheet. “Clutter surely has an effect, but in the retail game, it’s a case of having the right offer and getting it into the hands of the right market at the right time, and most importantly, finding ways to get through the clutter,” he says.
And you can count on clutter always being a factor in this media type. With community papers and freesheets growing their adspend by 56% over 2002, and 30% over 2001, this is one media segment where it really is possible to print your own money.
Stocking the Journo Pond
Community newspapers are no longer just the place for an aspiring journo to cut her teeth before heading off for the big time in the dailies or on the Sunday squad. Most freesheets, especially off the presses of the major publishers, are not sorry little rags that arrive apologetically each week.
“Certainly, speaking for ourselves, and no doubt others, we produce very clean and disciplined papers, and work hard on our standards. We don’t feel we’re inferior editorially in any way,” says David Hill, editor of Cape Community Papers.
Which is why not every good journo who joins a community paper, leaves. “You’d think it would be hard to attract and keep talent in a community newspaper environment, but many journalists stay and thrive here,” says Hill. “They like having a specific geographic area to cover, handling a wide variety of news, and not being limited to any one beat. And since many of these papers have only one reporter, they can gain a lot of clout within their areas, as well as the satisfaction of having a big say in what goes into their paper.”
There are, of course, those who do use the freesheets as a springboard. Limited staff, and unlimited editorial scope are precisely what make the good community newspaper an ideal training ground for journalists. “Cub writers are literally thrown into the deep end and have to cover stories ranging from the serious and dramatic, to the sublime, like the opening of creches with noisy little kids who won’t pose for the camera,” says Cliff Buchler, editor of Caxton’s Northside Chronicle. They also, adds Hill, have to find a lead, features, and fillers, and can’t resort to filling the paper with national or international news from other sister papers.
“I have always believed,” agrees Buchler, “that if you’re able to write (properly, that is) for a local newspaper, you’re ready for the big-time. At least seven journos working for me on the locals have gone on to become writers on the nationals.”