Northcliffe Media’s Kent hybrid papers on the rise

Kent Regional News & Media (KRNM), a division of Northcliffe Media in the South East, today saw increases in ABC circulation figures for its rejuvenated portfolio of hybrid local newspapers.

The circulation for KRNM’s four part-paid and part-free paper portfolios include the Medway News, East Kent Gazette Series, Canterbury Adscene, Whitstable & Herne Bay Times and the Folkestone Herald Series – collectively rose by  3.8% Y-O-Y in the January – June 2009 ABC figures. This is in contrast to the overall trend in the industry for a 7.8%  fall.

Northcliffe Media’s own figures however show a more dramatic impact since the hybrid model has been introduced from May this year, which has only partly been captured in the 1H ABC figures. The Medway News circulation in early August for example was up an incredible 355% in comparison to the January to June 2009 ABC figures released today.

KRNM attributes these positive figures to the strategic changes that have taken place since acquiring the 17 titles in the group in July 2007. These have culminated in the last few months with a consolidation of the titles into four hybrid portfolios – a combination of part-paid and part-free distribution. The titles have also undergone a complete redesign to give them a more modern look and a local community feel, proving there is still a role for quality local newspapers.

Whilst each newspaper has maintained and increased its very local content and retained the brand of the existing dominant paid-for or free title; the classified sections are now common across each portfolio streamlining the production process but allowing localised editorial to remain at its core for each edition.

For example, in the Canterbury area, which was previously serviced by the free Canterbury Adscene and paid-for titles, The Herne Bay Times and Whitstable Times, there is now core advertising across the three titles with dedicated local advertising pages making up the front end of the paper and within the sports section. In this instance the titles are available to buy in all areas and are then delivered free door-to-door 24 hours later within the main urban areas. This strategy has been reversed in other areas where sales are particularly strong in urban areas, or where paid-for competitor titles have a high-circulation.

Stephen Lowe, Commercial Director at Kent Regional News & Media said, "We had a real challenge in the Kent region because there were so many titles, for example eight weekly newspapers in Gillingham, serving the local people from a variety of publishers. We all know that the local media industry is suffering particularly hard in the current economic climate so we needed to try something different in order to reinvigorate both circulation and advertising revenues.

"Therefore with having already developed the hybrid model in East Grinstead, we developed the model further and formulated a distribution strategy in each area which will support our goal of increasing and maintaining circulation and increasing audience for advertisers. This is still in the early stages but we are finding that the hybrid model offers the advantage of allowing us to produce newspapers with the editorial quality and values of a paid-for title whilst guaranteeing the reach of door-to-door distribution. Ultimately we are finding that this provides a much less complex proposition and better value for money for national advertisers looking to reach people in Kent.”

Lawrie Procter, Managing Director, MediaForce said: "What Northcliffe Media has done well in the Kent area is simplify what can be a very complicated market. From a media buying perspective, it’s great to see the investment in developing these local titles and there have been really positive reactions so far."

Whilst the hybrid editions have enjoyed circulation success, the two paid only titles in Thanet, Thanet Times and Isle of Thanet Gazette, saw circulation decline in line with the rest of the industry. This gives KRNM a compelling reason to consider a similar hybrid strategy with both Thanet titles in the months ahead.

ABC and Northcliffe Media figures