Back in the day, when we wanted to find out whether an item such as the Bridge or Fishing columns, or the Sudoku or Crossword, were being read or were occupying space in the paper that could be better used, the only way was to leave them out for a week or so and wait for the reaction.
There were outcries when old favourites like Vic Harthog (Halleluljah) and Lovey Hulett (Bridge) retired, but they had been plugging away for 25 years or longer and could be forgiven for hanging up their keyboards.
It was the blunder we made of running the wrong crosswords over the last three weeks that has evoked a swift backlash, with some sarcastic comments about which schools we did or didn’t go to that served as sharp reminders that there are some items that must not be fiddled with.
While errors like that bring swift responses from readers, that finger in the wind method of measurement has largely been replaced by extremely sophisticated (and expensive) readership surveys that measure how and why people consume media.
Of course, we want to know whether our papers and magazines are being read, but we also want to show advertisers that they are getting the best bang for their buck.
Amidst all the gloom and doom talk of ‘print is dead’ and how the internet is going to rule the world, it is extremely encouraging to learn that is far from the truth, on this continent at least.
Caxton local media, the group we are affiliated to, last week released the results of face-to-face interviews representing 967 000 shopping decision makers countrywide and 19 000 here on the North Coast.
South Africa’s largest urban community quantitative survey, ROOTS, is undertaken by independent research house, Kantar TNS.
There is too much information to present in one serving, so we will release it over the course of a year or more, but really heartening is that reading regularity of The North Coast Courier has risen from 67% in 2013 to 77% today, which means that about 14 600 household purchasing decision makers from Sheffield to Westbrook (i.e. the people in sample survey area who actually do the shopping, not the teenagers) are using the Courier every week to plan their shopping.
The reason for the rise in popularity has been the significant improvement in editorial content of the paper over the past decade or so, notably because, I believe, of the diversity of content plus the immediacy of happenings in the community presented online and through our WhatsApp news groups.
This will be boosted even more by our new Courier app, launched last week and available for Apple and Android phones.
75% of residents get their news through their phones and that is where we are concentrating on improving our community offering.
They particularly use and like the inserts we carry (Game has built its whole business on those specials booklets. Since when did you ever go into Game to browse?) and the like of Dischems are swiftly following suit.
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I’ve always thought I would discover my inner self through some eastern philosophies, not because of a stupid single-ply toilet paper!
