A SNAPSHOT of advertising in the Scottish Daily Express has found that just over a fifth of the paper was taken up with adverts.
The review, of the January 13 edition of the paper, found three full pages for Tesco supermarket (as in the case of most other newspapers that day) plus 14 in-house ads or reader offers, including a two-page reader offer in association with cruise people, P&O. There was a full-page advert also for HM Revenue and Customs and another for a hair loss treatment.
The review is part of an allmediascotland.com trawl of both indigenous titles and London ones operating as clear Scottish editions.
Already, allmediascotland.com has found that the January 13 edition of The Scotsman comprised 12.69 per cent of display and classified adverts, while The Herald’s total – on the same day – was 24.65 per cent. The corresponding figures for the Metro, Scottish Sun, Daily Star of Scotland, Scottish Daily Mail and Daily Record were 26.49 per cent, 28.05 per cent, 23.91 per cent, 20.05 per cent and 20.86 per cent. The Courier’s total, even including in-house ads, was 14 per cent, while the Press and Journal’s was just under 17 per cent.
allmediascotland has still to reveal the amount taken up by adverts in the January 13 edition of The Times (Scotland).
It was not possible to say whether any of the adverts recorded were appearing at massively-reduced prices or even for free. And, of course, the Scottish editions of London-based titles included adverts sourced for UK-wide consumption.
The review follows reporting on allmediascotland.com of the quarterly, Bellwether, survey of company marketing budgets which recorded the biggest decrease in ad spending plans in its nine-year-history.
Only seven per cent of companies reported plans to increase their marketing, while 49 per cent said they were planning to decrease.
Excluding the in-house ads and the reader offers, some 21.83 per cent of the paper’s content was given over to advertising.
The Scottish Daily Express retails, Monday-Friday, for 35p.
