Advertisers told to force the pace on circulation transparency

Media & Marketing:Advertisers should ask themselves if they are truly happy with magazines and newspapers that do not have properly audited sales figures, a leading executive from ABC told a gathering of advertisers in Dublin this week.

While the meeting was not open to the press, Mr Martyn Gates, director of newspapers & consumer magazines for ABC, told The Irish Times the Irish publishing industry had had to change the way it operated.

He disclosed that in the last six months 20 new Irish magazines and newspapers had joined ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) as the push for transparency had an impact on publishers.

Mr Gates said it was advertisers' money and they should be asking publications why they were not audited. "It is an industry agreed standard and it does allow comparisons to be made, so it is up to Irish advertisers to assess whether that is what they want or not."

The advertisers gathered at the meeting expressed concern that newspapers should produce monthly audited figures, rather than the current six monthly system. However, Mr Gates said this was a matter for the National Newspapers of Ireland.

The seminar, which was the first of its kind with the ABC, also looked at magazine sales figures. This area has become controversial since questions were raised last year about the sales figures of some Smurfit publications. Mr Gates said some titles from Smurfit were now in ABC, others were not.

A Smurfit Communications spokeswoman last night said the majority of its titles were now audited by ABC, among them Woman's Way, U, Irish Tatler and Food & Wine.

She said Cara, which is distributed on Aer Lingus planes, was not audited by ABC because it was a contract publication. Another publication, You Are A New Baby, is not audited because it is given away in bounty packs issued to mothers who recently gave birth.

Strange case of APN

Independent's Australian subsidiary, APN, has been fighting a rearguard action against of all things, further competition in the radio market.

The company, which has extensive radio interests, has for several years opposed plans by the Australian Broadcasting Authority, the equivalent of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, to licence new entrants to the radio market.

However, the authority has politely told APN where to go and plans to proceed with new licences in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. APN is not happy and this week called the decision "unfortunate from the prospective of the radio industry as a whole".

Considering that it stands to be one of the main losers in the shake-up, one can understand APN's distaste for the idea of new entrants.

But reading its press release this week it would be easy to forget the company owns (along with Clear Channel) licences in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Its radio division, ARN, said: "ARN's case in this debate was always about the commercial stability of radio as medium."

What the changes mean for APN itself is unclear at this stage. But Merrion analyst Niamh Brodie has already warned about its implications. "The issue of new licences poses a risk to profits from this media channel to APN, as a greater level of competition could erode the benefits from an uptake in the broader advertising market."

Olympian boost

The huge audience figures for the Special Olympics opening ceremony must have given a boost to RTÉ's advertising department. The department, which has been having a damaging row with one of the State's largest advertisers, Procter & Gamble, badly needed the income.

The first few months of the year have been tough for the station with advertising revenue failing to meet budget targets in certain divisions.

However, the Special Olympics has given the station a welcome financial shot in the arm, with more than 53 spots sold during the ceremony.

Among the companies taking space were Dublin Bus, Coca Cola, Cadburys, Bulmers, Opel, Vodafone, Clerys and Guinness.

The programme managed to reach 64 per cent of the overall available adult audience. RTÉ does not comment on what advertising revenue it gets from certain events or programmes, but advertising sources who analysed the advertisers and the length of the slots estimate the State-owned broadcaster took in somewhere near €200,000.

One advertising manager commented: "We believe that the vast majority of this was paid by sponsors associated with the Special Olympics, such as Bank of Ireland and Toyota - they bought packages of airtime throughout the whole of the Special Olympics."

Healthier outlook

Following a series of less than bullish forecasts for advertising earlier this year, the latest projections from the US bring a little more cheer.

According to CMR, the research arm of Taylor Nelson Sofres, ad spending will rise by 4.3 per cent this year, not 3.3 per cent as originally predicted at the start of the year. This means $124.7 billion (€108.4 billion) will be spent in 2003 in the US alone.

"Things were better than we expected," Mr Steven Fredericks, CMR's president told the AdAge website. He said there had been a quick "snapback" from Iraq war-related revenue declines.

The CMR data show that the war had little impact on total TV ad spending. The data showed that the initial fall-off of TV advertising owing to the war was around $70 million - compared with the loss of $313 million after September 11th.

'Big Brother' bombs

After three years of ecstatic reviews from TV critics and cultural commentators, the cash cow that was Big Brother appears to have been milked to its limits by Channel 4. After years of extraordinary ratings growth, the programme has failed to deliver the double-digit, year-on-year ratings growth of the previous two series.

If you have any media, advertising or marketing news or comment, please email Emmet Oliver at eoliver@irish-times.ie