Author: Simon Perry
County Press: Their Financial Relationship With The Council
7:52 pm Friday, 16th July, 2010, Isle of Wight
ShortURL: http://wig.ht/26IJ
Read More- Business, Island-wide, Isle of Wight Council, News, Print
Back in June we raised the subject of how much the Isle of Wight council spends on advertising.
To recap, we’d asked the IW Council to break down how much they had spent on advertising over the last ten years.
They refused to give us the information through normal channels, forcing us to use the Freedom of Information Act.
The information was late in arriving, taking over half as long again as the law dictates.
Pouring over the list of columns is where it started to get interesting … and slightly shocking.
We’d always known that the Council had a commercial relationship with the County Press, but we’d never imagined that it was the size it is.
Missing Year 2005-6
Before we get on to that, we need to explain that the IW Council was unable to provide us with any details whatsoever of the money that they spent on advertising, job adverts, or the ‘IW Council Image Campaign’ in the year 2005-6.
So there’s a big, black hole for this period. When we asked why, we were told that they “regret that this information for 2005/06 is not recorded in a comparable format to the other years.”
The IWC tell us that the last year they’ve sent us (2009-10), is just the spending “to date,” so it would be reasonable to assume there might be more to add to it.
£4,000+ a week to the County Press
In the last year of complete figures that we have (2008-09), the Isle of Wight council paid the County Press an average of over £4,000 every single week of the year. An amount totalling £215,808.34 for one year.
From what we can make out, this is separate from the money that they spent on Job Adverts. That totals another £170,301.62 over a number of publications in the latest period (2009-10, to date figures).
300% Spend Increase
Over the period 2000-01 to 2008-09, the amount of money paid to the County Press has increased over 300%, from £71,394.08 to £215,808.34 a year.
CP got Two Thirds of all council ad spend
In 2007-8 the County Press received over two thirds (66.81%) of the whole of the council’s media spend off and on the Island (CP – £194,591.94, Total spend – £291,260.28).
Over the last ten years (period that we have figures for), it has remained at over half of all council ad media spend on and off the Island every year.
A near 50% increase in one year
We’re not sure what happened in 2007-08, but the amount that the IW council gave the County Press jumped up by close to 50% in a single year.
The precise numbers are £133,790.53 (2006-07) growing to £194,591.94 (2007-08). A multiple of 1.45.
Over £1.2 million spent
Over the last ten years the IW Council has spent at least £1.2 million pounds advertising with the County Press – this excluded the undeclared 2005-06 figure, which could be reasonably guessed at adding at least another £100,000, bringing the total to over £1.3m.
Savings
The public announcement this week by Council leader David Pugh that the council will no longer buy a copy of the County Press at 70p per week pail somewhat into insignificance.
The detail
Here’s the figures for you
£198,111.56 – 2009-10 (Incomplete. Figures to date)
£215,808.34 – 2008-09
£194,591.94 – 2007-08
£133,790.53 – 2006-07
Not supplied – 2005-06
£105,969.98 – 2004-05
£112,949.91 – 2003-04
£93,346.37 – 2002-03
£86,999.31 – 2001-02
£71,394.08 – 2000-01
More coming
There’s more details from the ‘spreadsheet of all knowledge’ on the way – just as soon as we get the next chunk compiled.
Good work,bravo!
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unbelievable!!! well done for exposing this
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Jaw Dropping.
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so is there a breakdown as to what that £4000 per week actually buys them? I would imagine it covers things like announcements of planning, roadworks etc, maybe some births deaths and marrages, dont know. Theres always a fair few pages full of things the council has to make public by law. Does seem a bit steep for just that though, so a breakdown of exactly what that buys would be good. And perhaps a comparison to a few mainland councils. It sounds a lot, but is it really compared to others?
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Wow! I guess this puts them reasonably high up on the CP’s most lucrative accounts list, which must make for an interesting relationship?
Would be interesting to see a further breakdown, especially the split between statutory notices and general advertising.
There also must be some metrics against this spend? In terms of how effective each item of spend was.
Great work VB!
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I listened to the radio and he said he bought his own copy of the cp, rather than the council paying for it. Fair enough. Also I think by law the council has to advertise statutory things in the most popular media – planning applications, road works etc. Although vb has a lot of viewers it is no match for cp if that’s what you are getting at! You have to face it, whether people like it or not they end up buying – or seeing – the cp each week. Vb just attracts moaners – in fact what am I doing posting on here! Last time I reckon
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Yeah, i`m just a moaner too, but since i`m paying for the council along with lots of others i guess i`m allowed to be. It`s called (their) accountability.
Anyway, i view vb as the thinking mans cp.
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Maybe because wuth this councilthere is a lot tomoan about. Our services are being cut left right and centre and the most vunrable inour society is suffering…yet the council spends hundreds of thousands of pounds with the CP.
Its nonsesne and needs moaning about..this stupid budget with the CP has to be cut dramatically and that wasted money used elsewhere.
On top of this rip off of our money, they produce that awful piece of self propaganda ‘One Island’ (distributed by CP).
Moaners are just people with opinions, long live moaners
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A pessimist (moaner?) is an optimist in full possession of the facts …. need I say more?
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I agree Bingo, whilst its good to expose the relationship between the IWC and IWCP, the council HAS to advertise many things and the CP has the largest readership across the Island, and we all know is stupidly expensive per column cm for advertisers. Approx 2k for a page! VB has a lot of work to do to get anywhere near the same readership, and will have to lose its ‘moaning’ status, there are very few positive items listed when it comes to the council, and its readership appears to be mainly of the opposition views. Sad really.
Maybe the site should give ALL the details in articles such as this, from both viewpoints?? For example, “The IWC paid the IWCP £…. but thats because of this, this and this, and the actual waste appears to be….” Now that would be postive news.
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Why is it that people are labelled moaners just for expressing their opinion?
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When you look at anything, what you see is a mirror of yourself.
If you’re just seeing moaning …
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There’s a huge variety of stories on here including plenty of positive stories about council things. It’s true that VB doesn’t hold back when there’s something to expose though. Guess that might be uncomfortable for some who prefer to hide things.
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All news is moaning. Otherwise it’s not news.
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I wonder what proportion that is of their total advertising revenue?
I can’t easily find the total via Google …
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I’d imagine quite a lot if they are trying to communicate with thier target audience – isle of Wight residents. Like it or not cp is main player
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The other factor not mentioned so far is how much has CP’s advertising rates gone up during this period?
However there is no excuse for not being able to produce figures for 2005/06, maybe time to ask more questions about the missing year?
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Excellent work and well overdue.
Has always been a Tory Rag and now we can see the reason why.
Councillor Pugh giving up purchasing the County Press!
Is this his contribution when he says we will all ‘Share the Pain’ during the economic crisis?
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Surely he just reads his mums copy?
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I dont like the bloke, but is it really anyones buisness what paper he buys with his own money? If the council are not buying it then fair enough, but if he spends his own cash and buys his own copy thats his buisness. Or if he reads a copy brought by his mum thats also his buisness. The council is bigger than just him (thank god) and Im sure there are plenty of others who are more directly responsible for this bill than Pugh is.
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I would, at a guess, suggest that a few copies are sent to the Ivory Tower (To be proof read of course) – Just a thought.
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The IWCP a tory rag, you are soooooo funny, a liberal rag more likely, but actually only interested in itself I think you find….. I will pick myself up off the floor now…..
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Falling on the floor is a very dangerous sign; time to see your GP I think:-)
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Well discovered. A shocking figure. Without this revenue it seems fair to conclude the CP may collapse as a business. Has anyone seen their accounts? What profits have they been making? The paper is owned by a handful of powerful islanders.
I would bet the gazette could halve this cost, legal notices have only to appear in a paper circulating in the area. That’s why the nationals sometimes carry public notices.
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The Gazette would no doubt halve the cost – and would more than halve the readership!
Then we’d all be moaning that we never knew when/where there were roadworks, planning applications, licence applications etc etc and that we had to buy a Gazette as well as a CP!
Many Islanders but the CP for things other than the news … the jobs pages, hatched/matched/dispatched, etc etc. There is a web page which all of those who are able to access VB are equally able to access for free. Granted it is not always the best, especially the jobs page!
The council’s spend with the CP does seem very high, but without a breakdown of where it’s been spent it’s rather meaningless.
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I’m quite sanddend by some of the post’s here..please don’t just think that the best you can do is “moan”..you’re obviously all grvitating towrds this information for a reason,realize the fact that people are waking up and that YOU CAN take action,they are just suits adn mouths,pay them no homage of respect,if wrong is being done the collectivley..we the people can right them.Have faith in yourself..the entire sytem is corrupt but people are waking up by the million! Lobby them,call a vote of no confidence,march,protest,but above all never forget that we are the many,speak out!
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It is also interesting that whilst virtually all businesses and organisations have dramatically reduced their offline ad spend over the past 10 years, that the Council has increased its? hmmmm?
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Is it because the management is incompetent?
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IOW COUNTY PRESS HAS ALWAYS THOUGHT, IT HAD A GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO BE THE ONLY LOCAL PAPER. THEY HAVE ALWAYS DONE WHAT EVER WAS NEEDED, TO STOP ANY RIVALS GETTING A FOOT HOLD. IE CUT ADVERTISING RATES OR ADD A FREE ADD PAGE.QUITE A FEW PAPERS HAVE BEEM AND GONE.SWATTED BY THE HEAVY HAND OF,CP.IM PRETTY SURE THEY WILL SEE OFF ,THE GAZETTE IN THE END.HOPE NOT GOOD LITTLE PAPER.BUT SO WAS WEEKLY NEWS, WHERE THAT GO.
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Where else would they put their statutory announcements though? Regardless they do seem to be spending rather a lot.
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not been able to find an exact comparison in the 5 mins i spent looking, but these links give a vauge idea of what other councils spend on similar publicity:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/3709943/Councils-spending-1million-on-publicity-and-spin-doctors.html
http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/news/s/2041715_council_publicity_bill_is_frivolous_waste
Also, these stories are from 2008, so its likely the figures in them have gone up in the last 2 years. If anyone can find other information would be good to see it.
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Maybe the Gazette could offer them a 60% discount on CP rates? They’d still be quids in, and they would still be complying with the law….
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Perhaps they should place their ad’s on the notice board inside the council offices which seems to suffice for meeting announcements.
(Joke)
The Gazette and VB might do it!
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Better still in a locked filing cabinet in the basement marked “beware of the Leopard”.
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Woah. Staggered. Well done. :) Yeah I would be interested to see how this compares to other councils… More questions on my ever-growing list if they aren’t already on yours VB.
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Like the CP or hate it that journal remains the most read on the Island. If you want to convey news the CP is the place where information given is more likely to be read than anywhere else.
What VB has not yet done is to produce any evidence tht the CP has printed pro Council Propaganda in return for advertising.
I don’t work for the County Press and neither do I know anyone who does. I once did send Percy Sutson an e mail which he never even acknowledged so I am not blind to that paper’s faults.
By the way I thought I read somewhere that the coallition Government was going to make it compulsory for all Local Government vacancies to be advertised on line. If that is true the County Press will lose Revenue.
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Eh? Where does VB say anything like ‘the CP has printed pro Council Propaganda in return for advertising?’
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it doesnt, hes saying they havnt yet proven that and so quite rightly havnt published that they have.
If this £4000 per week is being spent legitimately, and it is equal to what another organisation would spend on the same amount of advertising then theres nothing wrong with it. It seems a lot, but a breakdown of what exactly that £4000 buys would be good. Perhaps another freedom of information request should be put in.
From the other side, if another organisation would be charged less for the same advertising, or if it can be proven that the CP has offered positive write ups in return for the contract, then that should also be revealed.
To be fair, VB has only released the figures, not speculated, but the story does seem to invite readers to speculate on the CP/Council relationship, or at least not discourage it.
3 questions need answering:
Is £4000 a week a figure that is about right for this compared to other councils spending, or is it lower or higher than other councils spending?
What does this money actually buy?
Is there any evidence or suggestion of improper practices between the council and the county press?
Those are the questions people are speculating on, so maybe VB can answer them on our behalf.
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None of that is relevent to me…what is relevent is that this council is making cuts that affect us all, whilst maintaining an advertising/propaganda budget enough to keep open a coupleof services on the Island.
When times are good, advertise the fact, when they are crap..keep quiet and save our money
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but is it infact a propaganda budget? are the council infact paying for positive articles or adverts in the county press?
Or is this simply the bill for the statutory notices that have to be published by the council by law?
Until we know the answer to that, no one actually knows what theyre talking about. YOu can say its a lot of cash, and it is, but unless you compare it to other councils and know what the cash actually buys you cannot say that this money could be better spent elsewhere. People are having a good old moan about the outrageous fact that the council pays the county press £4k a week, but if that money is to publish statutory notices then its not only justifiable but also illegal not to publish them. Enough of jumping to conclusions and assuming that the county press and council have a relationship worthy of the masons. Lets please have the relevant facts published before anyone assumes that this money is money that should not be spent. Its not enough to say that £4k is a lot of money and thats bad, if that is the market rate and other councils pay similar amounts to publish statutory notices then thats how much it costs and thats that. If we are actually paying over the odds compared to other councils then there should be an investigation.
Assuming that this is all the big bad council and the evil county press getting into bed together is just that, assumption. Until we know the facts of exactly what this money buys we cant make educated comment.
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All the usual council bashers on here are very quick to jump on the bandwagon and shout about how shocking it is, but some people including on here are more realistic.
Firstly, the CP does charge a lot as Peter Humber said – four figures for a page – and they’re rates would have gone up which explains the rise in recent years.
Also, the council would have to advertise lots of events and statutory listings. For example, jobs, roadworks, official notices etc. They soon rack up.
Then add on the advertising of events and schemes, such as Cowes Week entertainment, leisure centre listings, theatre listings, entertainment listings, supplements such as schools supplements etc, it soon adds all together, so £4000 a week isnt as high as you would think.
If you think £200k to the CP is a lot, I don’t see any of you complain about Southern Vectis getting £8m of our money a year from the council that was in the CP this week. Now that is a huge amount to a private company.
Love it or hate it, the CP is the main form of advertising on the Island and it will stay that way for a very long time.
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Sorry realist, an estate agent pal told me they pay only a few hundred per page in the CP. If I were the papers biggest advertiser, I would want to be paying the lowest possible rate. It follows that the council are probably paying near full whack and that no-one there has had the wit to drive the cost down. Let’s face it, when are the council ever good negotiators? Answer: Never.
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Our full page cost a lot less than 4 figures
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An ‘estate agent pal’ told me they get special rates because its a specialist service in a PROPERTY section, so the CP would be stupid to charge full rates to every estate agent. Why else is every estate agent always in there.
It’s really not that difficult to work out, is it.
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This is not Council bashing this is questioning why they’re still spending money on advertising etc, when essential services are being cut. Most people nowdays have access to the internet (or can access it from libraries etc)and the Council employs staff to maintain the Council Website, so put it all on there. Even if it means employing an extra person, it’s a darn site cheaper than the County Press. Is it really still necessary in the 21st Century to print everything in hard copy?
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Not everyone has access to the Internet, especially many elderly on the Island, so the council would have to keep on advertising in the CP.
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” then add on the advertising of events and schemes, such as Cowes Week entertainment, leisure centre listings, theatre listings, entertainment listings,”
Council doesn’t pay for these…theatres and venues pay for their own.
I don’t mind what the council spends with the CP when times are good…I do object to it when we are suffering council imposed cuts left right and centre
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All the services come under the council NO5. People like Medina Theatre and Heights comes under the council so I would suspect the figures above include those services which is why £4000 a week is not as high as you think. As I said, I am a realist, not a ‘jump on the bandwagon council basher’ like most people on here
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This current administration have cut, cut and cut again. With some of those choices being made against the most vulnerable and needy. We all know money has to be saved but recent cuts which can only be described as cruel, affecting the most vulnerable in our society.
Therefore this huge amount paid to the CP is very unpalatable in these circumstances, couple that with the infighting, total incompetence and their all singing and dancing YouTube star of a leader and you will excuse the bloggers here when they start to see red (or is that true blue?)
I think the telling fact here is why VB had to request this info via Freedom of Information. This is public money, why be obstinate and only release it after the pressure of the law has been applied? Something to hide? Even when the IOW council have been forced to cough up, a whole 12 months accountability is missing (further complaint VB?) Your council can not tell you what they have done with your money for over a 12 months apparently. Try doing that with yer council tax/tax man and see how you get on..
Mr Realist, council bashing serves no purpose other than a release of frustration. It is VB who have realistically brought to the public’s attention the apparent financial link between the CP and Davy P’s gang.
The CP is soft, long and thoroughly absorbent, bit like Andrex really. Pugh and Co seem to use both these paper formats for the same use. Quick pass the Febreze
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The council do not pay for venue or theatre advertising…. they pay for it themselves
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Oh we are all so stupid, the council can’t just have a few ‘council’ pages and negotiate a special low rate, they have to do as the county press tells them and pay for each item dependent on its location in the paper. Thanks realist for pointing it out. I assume the person at the council in charge of negotiations is as smart as you? How else does it cost only £4,000 a week.
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The County Press costs 70p.
When you take out all the Ads. Motoring, property, classified, births, deaths etceteras (Which are all paid for by the advertiser) There is not a great deal to read.
I purchase the CP just to read Charlotte Hofton:-)
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Me too! She is wasted on local press the dailies should have snapped her up long ago!
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she’s rubbish nowadays
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Don, Sometime back I thought you said you had
stopped buying the CP (as well as a daily paper).
Charlotte Hofton can be read on line in the CP
under features.
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£4000 a week! -surely as a regular advertiser, the council would have discounted ratres!
The nhs now advertises all its jobs online.
Why not iow council have a short summary list in print and do the same.
As for notices etc, these rarely take up a page, and ,yes, use council notice boards and dare I say it, libraries?
The figure given needs to be broken down again to see what pays for what.
Its our money paying for this at the end of the day, so we should have the right, considoring that we don’t have the choice, as to how it is being spent!
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Good work, Ventnorblog.
Another way that the County Press benefits from Council policy is as follows:
Anyone who arranges a charity collection is legally obliged to get permission from the Council. The Council now insists that the result of any collection is published in the Public Notices section of the County Press. Thanks to the Council’s new ruling, we raised £32 and had to pay £15 of it to the County Press. The remainder of the collection did not even amount to the busfares of those involved in the collection. So much for supporting local initiatives.
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The council is complying with the law in this respect, and applying regulations whereby they have stated the CP is the local paper the information must be published in, question is, why the CP charges so much for this info to be printed? It is a question for them, maybe a small section could be set aside fulfilling this requirement charging a nominal £1.
It is a charitable collection they are profiting from after all.
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The law does not tell the council to publish official notices in the County Press. The law states certain public notices must be placed in a newspaper with a circulation in the relevant area. The Beacon, Island Life, The Creak, the Weekly Ad or the Gazette all do this, as do all the nationals. My guess is the council uses the County Press out of habit?
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i think the law might actually say that they should publish in the paper with the highest circulation, and even if im wrong about that, common sense suggests that publishing in the paper with the highest circulation is most likely to reach the highest number of people.
I dont think the Gazette, Weekly Ad, beacon, or the others you mention can claim circulation anywhere near the county press. However maybe the council should consider advertising in the Gazette. It might result in less council bashing and more sensible journalism from that paper.
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You would have thought,these days, that most official Council notices could be put on their website rather than in a local newpaper.Anyway,there is something fishy when the County Press is receiving such a large yearly amount from the Isle of Wight Council(which we are paying for).To a certain extent it sounds like it is payed off to
be a mouthpiece of the Isle of Wight Council’s Political leaders.A form of corruption of the truth.
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All to cosy like a lot of other things within the council. It would be good if VB looked at a number of other relationships the council has with associated bodies!
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I am still waiting for evidence that the Council and the CP have entered into a cosy relationship in that in return for advertising revenue the paper goes easy on the Council.I assume this is the main purpose of the article.
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Perception, perception, perception, to misquote some long forgotten politician.
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What an amazing amount of interest this disclosure has created!
1. There would appear to be an IOW Council and CP supporter group asking for evidence of miss doings between these two, when in-fact I cannot see any accusation.
2. It is reasonable to speculate, that the CP is bound to be pro the advertiser. It has always been so in local paper publishing and it is likely to continue.
3. Public notices have to be published, by law. In the CP Rate sheet they are £5 per column inch (who pays rate card prices with a £200,000 spend!) which would mean 800 column inches per week or 26.25 column feet. Do they really need that much?
4. Isn’t this an unwise use of public money in a time of bitter recession? Surely a less expensive way of complying with the law must be found. Any spend that could be misconstrued as council spin should be cancelled at the very least.
5. If the council feel obliged to continue with their advertising in the CP, then they should be transparent about the cost and the content.
6. I thought the council is elected to look after our best interests, or have I misunderstood? :-)
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I agree with all of those apart from the first two.
There is not, i beleive, an ‘OW Council and County Press Supporter group’ as you put it. A number of people have suggested, assumed, or speculated that there might be mis-doings between the two. A number of others have suggested that such claims need evidence to back them up. Anyone can sling mud, but to make it stick needs evidence.
It is not reasonable to assume the county press is pro advertiser either. Again, you need evidence to support that assumption.
All that myself and a few others on here are asking is that if people would like to suggest that there is something immoral or illegal about the council advertising in the county press, that those people should be able to substantiate their suggestions with evidence, or even better proof. Otherwise its simply mud slinging.
Transparancy about costs etc would be good, and I dont for a minute think that there is not a ‘relationship’ between the council and the CP. I simply doubt that there is corruption there, and those who suggest there is should provide proof before making unsubstantiated assumptions.
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Its not corruption, just a standard commercial relationship. All sorts of content in the media industry gets regularly pulled due to the need to ‘maintain’ commercial relationships. And most of the time this not formally articulated in anyway or even visible, as the media source will simply take a view on material, and if they feel it may damage a commercial relationship they will not run it, or will water-down/change the content. This is all standard practice that has existed since the first commercial media sources appeared centuries back.
What is also standard practice is that if you spend on advertising it is much easier to generate positive PR, and to a certain extent this is expected. Again this is not corruption, simply industry practice. If I had an account worth 200k with a media organisation and they ran a bad story about me I would have my PR agency on the phone immediately, and would definitely play the i’m pulling my account card, again that is standard practice.
The main question is are the CP influenced by the advertising spend of IWC? If the answer is no then they are probably the most unique commercial media business in the industry.
But what is positive is that there are ‘new’ media sources that now break the stories that those operating the traditional commercial model cannot.
What is important here is that we hold this spend to account, especially during this difficult economic period. The question we should now be asking is about the value for money of this spend, like any client would normally demand from their agency. Is it still valid? Are there better ways of communicating? What is the ROI equivalent and so on. Without any detail straight away this basic breakdown of figures throws up some alarm bells.
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Ok, point taken. However, I have been offered ‘free’ editorial if I bought an ad in a feature, some years ago I admit and things may have changed of course. ;-)
I agree that it is silly to shout corruption without first having the full facts but you can’t blame people for letting off steam when there is such an apparent lack detailed and cost effective management in regard to advertising spend, and worse can’t produce figures for a whole year, that is just an excuse or how can they budget or audit?
Any way my point is not what has happened but what is going to happen and advertising costs should be one of the first items to be scrutinised, before cutting welfare costs. It would be so easy if the information was available when requested but I suppose none of us would have the opportunity to banter about things on a Sunday afternoon if it was all so easy.
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Do any of the IoW Councillors have a financial interest in the County Press?
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Like everything else, advertising space and costs should be tendered for.
I’ll wager the IoW Gazette could give the tax payer a much better deal – Remember the Gazette costs only 30p; with more income it could give us more news and features. Competition is good.
You never know they just may tempt Charlotte Hofton to join them,; perhaps they could do a straight swap for David (Doc) Holmes:-)
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Ive been away for a while but i am sure people will welcome me back?????
I have a lot of experience of council budgets and how these things work so thought a few thoughts may be worthwhile:
Yes they have to advertise certain things in the biggest titles. Yes, they could use Gazette but why only tell a third of the Island population when the CP goes into virtually every house on IOW. Someone said VB & Gazette would suffice. Not quite, not everyone uses the internet and some would not be able to get the gazette so problems here too. Still comes back to CP as the best title for the job.
Yes the figures quoted will include all council business so the Heights etc will all be included.
Yes lots of advertisers are reducing their spend offline and spending more online. However, this will not always be the case and i have some clients who have increased their press spend from 08 to 10. Plus, online will always work better as part of a multimedia campaign including press. The council are not doing this out of habit but to get the most cost effective media they can.
People keep saying that the County press charges a lot but what are they comparing it to? To give you an example a page in the Evening Standard costs around £11,088 and circulates 610,000 so a cpt of £18.17. The County Press charges £1008 roughly a page and circulates 36,663 so a cpt of £0.27. Not too expensive really.
On the issue of getting free editorial in features. This is called Feature Link and is actively sold by the Newspaper Society and is standard practice. How does it work…An advertiser buys an ad as a feature link and get the same size ad as editorial. The paper then sells space on the back of the feature to other relevant advertisers. I did this only last week in the Birmingham Post.
So yes there are relationships between advertiser and media owner but these are not a given. The papers more often do things for the agency to hope that we place more money their way (i got taken to Ibiza for 5 days recently and stayed in a €28m villa with another regional paper all so i would include them on more plans) but editorial is still largely unbiased. Of course i have threatened to pull advertising on the back of bad editorial. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
I have put some charts together for site admin showing council spends by media over the last couple of years. I’m not sure they are any use but maybe will give some perspective. I can break them down by individual media channels if needs be but unsurprisingly all councils i checked spend heavily in their local papers and media.
I also pitched for the council business last year and no full well where all their advertising goes. They decided to keep in in house instead of a specialised agency.
This is merely the tip of the iceberg.
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err, I think you moved the decimal point for the evening standard! 610,000 copies for £11,000 is 1.817 pence per copy whereas the CPs £1,008 per 36,663 copies is 2.749p per copy 50% more than the Evening Standard! moreover you state that £1,008 is a rough figure?? sounds pretty exact to me!
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With maths skills like that, I’m glad Isle of Vibe isn’t running my account. Quoting £18 instead of £1.81 ????
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Must work for the council!
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Isle of vibe – your assumptions are tosh! Why does the council need to advertise with the County Press? Who says it’s read by most people, apart from the paper itself of course. The legal notices are a tiny part of what the council put in, they can be in any newspaper that’s available in the area, not just the one with the biggest circulation.
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I would suggest the sales figures speak for themselves. More people buy the county press, ergo more people read it than the gazette. You may say that a copy of the gazette might be shared by several people, but the only way to guage circulation is by sales figures.
Common sense says that the County Press should be used for legal notices as it has the largest circulation. If the council use them for legal notices, then why not use them for other advertising as well? Adverts work best when read by the most people, and the county press reaches many more than the gazette. Of course, if the gazette was able to sell more papers than the CP, advertising policy should be re-examined, but does anyone really think a relatively new, essentially tabloid paper will outstrip the CP in sales in the near future, especially with the stories that VB have run about the gazettes accounts, its various conflicts with the council and the hospice?
The only viable option to include the gazette in council advertising is to split the advertising spend, and that wont happen given the record of the gazettes reporting on the council and the various controversies that have surrounded the editor.
Right or wrong, the CP is seen as respectable. The gazette is not. Personally, I find it reassuring that the council uses the local paper with the highest circulation to publish its legal notices. They are clearly trying to reach the most people possible. If they used a paper with lesser circulation then that would have the appearence of trying to hide notices away. Obviously the cost should be looked at, but without a breakdown of what the money actually pays for, and a comparison of costs with other councils spending, its next to impossible for the general public to identify what is neccessary and what is waste.
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The notices have to be in the CP..the Gazette is barely viable as a publication and its longevity far from secure.
But this level of advertising is morally corrupt when all around are sufferieng cuts..simple
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Eric Pickles (Cons Party Sec. of State) has made a rule that in future all Councils spending more than £500 on anything will have to publish the information for all to see. Some Councils already do this on-line as part of their committment to transparency and to show people where the money goes. Apparently it is not difficult to set up and some Councils have already offered their expertise to others – do you think our Council will take up the offer?
The Council still have a Comms. Dept. of approx. 25 people and a bi-monthly magazine on top of what is spent at the CP!
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Advertising in the press is still a good idea. A high proportion of Islanders do not have access to the internet. All local councils use the local media to advertise in. It’s cheaper than putting a leaflet through every door. It also supports the local paper and helps keep it in business. The cost of running papers is not met by the cover price. Thanks to advertising, of all sorts, the IWCP and other publications, is kept down.
My only issue with this is that the IW Beacon should be used more by the Council and not just the IWCP.
No I dont work for the Beacon!!
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Carol Vorderman, my bad. Obviously moving too quickly so made a mistake. You’re right, it does make it look expensive. However, within the media market, it really is not that expensive. I have just bought into the Surrey Advertiser with a good rate but it is still coming in at a CPT of £42.93 (i know the sums are right this time). The cost i quoted for IOW CP is not exact as all rates depend on negotiation but it is a rate i know i can easily buy.
Judge…tosh eh? No assumptions just pure fact of buying and running media campaigns. What do you not get? I’ll explain but maybe just have a little think about how you would spend the money if you were in charge of it. That will be interesting. I’m assuming you are an expert in advertising?
To confirm, when running an advertising campaign, the idea is to get your message to the most people in your target audience in the most cost effective way. At its very basic level you want response and awareness.
With that in mind, the County Press has a readership of 92,557 (this is the ABC figure which is a major part of media trading just so you understand) so according to the 2001 census (132,731 adults) that gives the CP a 70% coverage of Island residents. I know the figures may be out of date but can you see the reasoning here yet?????
None of the other press titles can approach anywhere near that figure. I understand the argument that they should use other titles but whats the point if the job is already done in the CP. They would spend many man hours negotiating etc with lots of different titles and still not get the same coverage.
Do you understand now?
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Nice try – but you’re not fooling anyone. You’re trying to divert the discussion away from the main question and into if the CP is good value.
You’re employing a very basic technique in subverting a discussion, not very sophisticated, but then having watched your past efforts of ‘oh you should listen to me, I’m so fantastic and I know it all’, it’s hardly surprising.
The central question is why are the Council spends over £200,000.00 of OUR money advertising with the CP? This £200k is ON TOP of all of the money that they spend on their own One Island magazine that just goes on about fantasic they are. Let’s not forget that the CP gets paid to distribute that AS WELL!
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And before anyone says anything; IOW Radio only has 30% coverage of IOW adults according to the RAJARS.
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IW Radio! Now that could be another interesting set of figures. VB, are you planning to list those too?
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The trouble with this discussion is that we don’t know what exactly is being advertised.
Quay Arts and the Medina Theatre are Council owned. If therefore forthcoming productions are advertised that is probably council funded. Yet I would have thought if no show was advertised people would complain.
I come back to asking whether the shock horror of the story is the amount that is spent on advertising or whether there is a suggestion of an unhealthy alliance between the Council and the County Press.
I would add that saving some money on advertising would do nothing to stop the savage cuts to come once Central Government completes its Spending Review.
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Good point that we don’t know that split between official notices and ‘other’ advertising.
Sounds like it was hard enough to get the figures at all, so I wonder how hard the council would make it to get a breakdown?
One things I do know is that Quay Arts isn’t owned by the council, so they’ll be paying for their own adertising.
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Quay arts is partly funded by the council.
I wonder what the chances are of us reading all about it, in this weeks County Press?
I wont hold my breath.
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Love the typographic treatment you gave the CP header
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I have been so bewliederd in the past but now it all makes sense!
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Not surprising at all-there is a lot of underhand dirty business goes on on the Isle of Wight. I would say we are the pirate capital of the UK! Maybe we should be twinned with Somalia!
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