Archive for the 'Press News' Category

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The Irish Sun’s new Saturday Magazine

Buzz is The Irish Sun’s new Saturday Magazine, which launched on September 18. The Launch of Buzz has been described as the “most significant magazine development in the Irish Market”.  Buzz is free with The Irish Sun on Saturdays, and replaces the existing TV Mag. It will feature TV news and big name celebrity interviews, alongside fashion, beauty and real life stories and a revamped TV listings section.  Jane Johnson, The Irish Sun’s associate editor who launched Closer Magazine in the UK and the Irish News of the World’s Fabulous magazine, heads up this new initiative for News International. Jane commented: “We’ll feature a unique take on all the top shows from the X- Factor to Emmerdale from the Apprentice to the Inbetweeners. Plus, Buzz will be shopping heaven. Our Lifestyle pages will be filled with what’s new in fashion, beauty and entertainment, making it an unmissable weekly read”.

The magazine is promoted by a heavyweight marketing campaign entitled ‘Entertainment Bottled’ with a target audience of females between 18-44 years old.

Metroherald Partners with DRG

MOBILE internet services company Digital Reach Group (DRG) has agreed a partnership with the commuter freesheet ‘Metro Herald’ to provide Quick Response (QR) codes as part of the newspaper’s advertising portfolio. QR codes are barcodes embedded in advertisements that can be scanned by a reader using their smartphone to access extra information on their phones.  As well as giving users additional content, a simple point and scan can enable them to download mobile apps, enter competitions, receive a special offer or voucher, call or text. “This will give our newspaper a unique product and service that we can offer directly to advertisers and agencies,” said Paul Crosbie, managing director of ‘Metro Herald’.

In Ireland, QR Codes from DRG have already been implemented for a range of brands through ‘Metro Herald’. Sunway, Samsung, Carlsberg, and Jameson have all integrated them as part of ad campaigns in the past six months. Worldwide, a range of well-known brands, including Ford, Google, Pepsi and Starbucks,

have also used QR codes.

ABC Circulations

Daily Titles

In the Daily market, both Irish and UK titles have been badly affected with a loss of 45,086 on their combined circulation; that’s a -7% drop YOY.

The red top category has been worst affected with The Irish Sun the biggest loser. It’s down 11% (-10,661 copies). The Irish Daily Star is down 9% (-9,256 copies).

Irish Independent still remains the leader in the Dailies category with a 25% share, but is still down by 4%.

The Evening market is down with the Evening Herald down 5% and the Cork Evening Echo down by 8%.

Sunday Titles

The Sunday market is down by 5% (-63,696 copies)

The biggest loser was Sunday Tribune and the Irish Star on Sunday which are down by 18% YOY.

The Sunday World and Sunday Independent come out on top with a circulation of 267,612 and 265,346 respectively, although of some concern, they are both down YOY.

Sunday World had a loss of 9,892 copies, that’s down by 3.5% YOY.

Sunday Independent had a loss of 6,828 copies, that’s down by 2.5% YOY.

The Sunday Times circulation didn’t reflect its increase in readership as its sales were down by 4%, meaning more readers per copy.

JNRS Jul’09 – Jun ‘10

In general, press readership is down by 1% vs the 2009 readership or JNRS report. Those most affected are the dailies – 3% down vs ’09 book and the Sunday’s are 1% down.

Daily Papers

In general, the Dailies have seen a drop of 3% vs the last report and YOY. The National Newspapers of Ireland Group blamed higher unemployment and emigration for the declines.

It seems that the tabloids have been affected more than the broadsheets with most of them to have double digit drops in their readership YOY.

The Evening Herald has experienced the biggest drop of all with a 10% loss vs the last report and a 19% loss YOY.

The Irish Independent (16% of all adults) still remains the leader in the category followed by The Irish Daily Star (12%).

The Irish Daily Mail was the only title that saw an increase – up 1% or 2,000 readers.

On the contrary, most of the daily supplements have experienced an increase in readership versus the last book, probably reflecting a reduced spend by consumers on other magazines.

The Irish Indo’s supplement, Health and Living, gained 41,000 readers – that’s a 9% increase from the last book.

The only losers were the Sun’s TV Mag and the HQ with Evening Herald. HQ has been replaced by The Dubliner, the city guide that used to be distributed on its own weekly, so we expect that the newspaper will gain some figures back.

Sunday Papers

In the Sunday market the trend is more optimistic than the Daily one, since most of the titles have increased their readership especially if you compare this report YOY.

The Sunday Independent comes out on top by far, with a readership of 992,000   which is 4% down vs the 2009 book and -1% YOY. 28% of all adults read the Sunday Indo.

The Sunday Times continue to make gains with an additional 7,000 readers v’s the last book, that’s an increase of 2% and a considerable 14% YOY.

 The Sunday World reversed the trend in this book by increasing its readership to 843,000, that’s an increase of 4% vs the last book, but comparing this book YOY it has a decrease of a 5%.

 News of the World have also regained some of the readers they lost in the last book with a 3% increase, to 533,000 readers.

 The biggest winner in the category was the Irish Daily Mail that gained 30,000 readers, a considerable increase of 10% v’s the last book and a 13% YOY.

The biggest loser in the category was S Tribune with a 10% loss vs the last book and a -3% YOY.

Evening Herald launches Marketing column

The Evening Herald is to feature a media and marketing column starting on Wednesday, September 1st. Entitled Campaign Brief, the weekly column will provide readers with an update on industry news, including the latest campaigns, media news, product launches and goings on in adland, PR and research. The column will be written by Michael Cullen, editor of Marketing.ie magazine.

Evening Herald launches Striker Magazine

Evening Herald launched Striker, a dedicated Junior and Schoolboy soccer magazine. Striker provides the most comprehensive coverage of grassroots football in Ireland, covering 22 leagues with over 106,000 players. This 28 page supplement will be published every Monday in the Evening Herald giving you the opportunity to reach the largest active playing group in Ireland.

Image Man

IMAGE Publications launched  IMAGE MAN, Ireland’s newest glossy aimed at modern Irish men. It is the latest addition to the publishing house’s ever-expanding portfolio of iconic titles, including IMAGE, IMAGE INTERIORS and various contract titles for premium clients like Brown Thomas and Goffs.

Developed in association with L’Oréal Paris Men Expert, the inaugural issue was distributed nationwide with The Sunday Business Post, on July 25, and is planned to appear quarterly thereafter.

Richard Power, MD and co-owner of IMAGE Publications, is delighted with the latest expansion saying, “There is a gap in the Irish market for a high-end magazine that’s relevant to Irish men. IMAGE MAN fills that niche with a beautifully-produced and editorially-rich magazine that will meet the needs of advertisers and readers alike.”

Irish Daily Mail – Go from County to International.

On the 12th of June The Irish Daily Mail undertook the ultimate targeted promotion. An Irish national newspaper logistical first!   They hand inserted 80,000 county flags into a polybag and distributed them free with the newspaper throughout the 32 counties of Ireland. Each paper, in each shop, in each county had to have the applicable county flag which they successfully delivered – a reader in Naas got a Lilly white flag with the paper, a reader who bought their paper in Dingle received a flag with the Kingdom’s clrs and so on.  There was the obstacle of readers who lived away from home. To overcome this issue they set up a special customer “swap line” whereby readers could request a flag swap. Over 200 readers contacted us to swap their flag for the home county colours, which is a testament to exactly how powerful this communication was.

Also, the Irish Daily Mail has taken over as the title sponsor off the forthcoming International Rules Series between Ireland and Australia in October. This is the first time a media brand has taken on the title sponsorship and is a big coup for Associated Newspapers in Ireland. Previous sponsors included Coca Cola and Fosters.  The series kicks off in Limerick’s GAA Grounds on October 23rd and will be followed up by the rematch on October 30th in Croke Park. It is expected that up to 130,000 fans will attend the games while an additional 500,000 will watch it on TV.

As part of the build-up to the series, both the Irish Daily Mail and the Irish Mail on Sunday have a dedicated weekly column by Barney Rock. “Rock’n’Rules” will deliver readers all the latest action from the Irish camp.

The Sun Embraces 3D for World Cup Issue

The News International-owned redtop, The Sun is to publish a 3D edition of the paper the week before the World Cup kicks off in South Africa. The full colour 3D edition will contain 3D colour ads and editorial, including its own 3D “Page 3. “Readers will also be supplied with 3D glasses. An advertising campaign promoting this novel one-off publication will kick off in May and the paper will be substantially increasing its print run to support the anticipated demand. The growing 3D trend within the media and entertainment industries will also see the World Cup being filmed in 3D for the first time. According to FIFA, up to 25 of the games will be captured using 3D cameras.

Metro Herald introduces Quick Response Codes

Metro Herald has teamed up with Digital Reach Group to promote the launch of ‘Quick Response Codes’ or mobile barcode scanning in Ireland. With QR Codes scanning virtually everything becomes interactive and measurable by creating a unique call to action.  
QR codes are now appearing daily in the newspaper, encouraging readers to download ScanLife by providing links to additional content, competitions, interaction and more. Metro Herald are now offering QR codes as part of their overall advertising package.
An example of the response generated to date was for a competition in Metro Herald to win an iPad.

  • More than 8,500 entries over 7 days
  • Over 3,200 Scans of the Code
  • Each user entered an average of 2.6 time per scan
  • Name and email address data gathered for each entry

How it works:

1. A customer downloads the scanning application to their mobile phone and then opens the application up.

2. The customer then points the phone’s camera at the code to open up the content, which can include:

  • Open a mobile website with more information, video or audio
  • Make a phone call directly to a call centre
  • Download a coupon or special offer to drive traffic to your stores
  • Send a pre-formatted email or SMS to capture information from customers




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