The regional press is aiming its guns squarely at national
newspapers with the launch of an initiative designed to bring greater
cohesion and conformity to the UK’s regional newspapers.
The initiative is being launched by Amra, the regional press sales
operation owned by Trinity Mirror, and sees the launch of the first
cross-publisher steering committee for the regional newspaper
industry.
The aim of the steering committee is to examine and, hopefully, agree a
standard approach to a wide range of industry issues, such as national
rate reviews, advertising positions, credit control and voucher copy
management.
The steering group includes all of the titles represented by Amra and
accounts for 27 per cent of the regional press, including 22 daily
papers and 175 weekly titles.
According to Mike McCormack, the chief executive of Amra, this is the
first time such a broad portfolio of publishers has worked together to
develop a concerted approach to the national market. Advertisers and
agencies have often criticised the regional press for making it
difficult for national advertisers to use the regional medium.
’As the steering group members are senior executives, all directly
concerned with sales, we have a tremendous opportunity to make the
critical difference by tackling advertisers’ objections with swift and
possibly radical action,’ McCormack explained.
Proposed initiatives include regular forum meetings for advertisers and
agencies to discuss regional press issues, co-ordinated regional links
with national advertisers and new packages and test campaigns to
demonstrate the case for regional newspapers.
