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THE FINAL WORD ON INSERT MEDIA
The scandalous truth about national press inserts
By Nigel Swabey, Chairman Scotts & Co. & founder of the DCA
It normally takes a lot to get me riled, but I am infuriated by the high-handed arrogance shown by so many national newspapers and magazines whenever disputes arise regarding failures in circulation. The standard pattern seems to be to first deny, then attempt to minimise the scale of any circulation shortfall or other error in distribution.
A
dvertisement and insert managers across news media seem to forget that as direct marketers, we are able to
identify very swiftly and very accurately, any divergence from historical patterns of response for their publication. We can calculate any shortfall in circulation by region, and by reference to contemporaneous response rates achieved by other publications. We can thereby reach a very precise estimate of any shortfall.
Should we be surprised that with such a dramatic acceleration in the decline of print sales since the onset of the pandemic, news publishers are now seeking to disguise any fall in circulation? Perhaps not. But should we complain about their refusal to release details of the number of copied returned unsold, should we be outraged by their attempts to conceal or minimise major shortfalls in circulation when they occur, and should we condemn their arrogant mendacity in the face of evidence-backed claims submitted by advertisers? Yes, absolutely we should.
The pattern is familiar of course. Readers may recall the battle led by the DCA and backed by the DMA, against the News Media Association (NMA) who were seeking to appropriate or “repatriate” a very significant part of the multi-million pound fund which remained after the closure of the MOPS/SHOPS scheme.
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That scheme had been almost entirely funded by contributions from direct advertisers over several decades. Having had to threaten litigation, we eventually secured a significant allocation of funds for the DM Trust which in turn, now releases small regular grants to the DCA for the development of training courses for members. You’ll find more about this on our DCA update pages.
From a commercial point of view, press insert sales should be important to news publications as inserts are the most profitable of all print advertising channels. The mechanical cost of insertion is less than £2 per ‘000, but publishers can charge anything between £8 and £30 per ‘000 for inserting catalogues. That’s why it is so difficult to understand why Ad Directors at major national newspapers are allowing their insert managers to put the reputation of press inserts as an advertising channel at risk by resisting calls for greater transparency at this critical time.
Right now, the media landscape is changing fast. As a catalogue publisher, I’ve been a long-term advocate of press inserts. By my calculation, I have placed almost 2 billion mail order catalogues into the national and regional press over the past 43 years. But this Autumn/ Christmas season we’ve hit so many issues that we are now re-classifying
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