A SNAPSHOT of advertising in the Scottish edition of The Times has found almost 18 per cent of the paper was taken up by adverts.
The review, of the January 13 edition of the paper – which was in two parts: a 76-page main section and a 24-page arts and lifestyle supplement, T2 – found 14 in-house ads and reader offers, including a full-page reader offer for a cruise ship trip and another full page devoted to a books-for-schools initiative. There were a further two full pages taken up by management and finance job ads.
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, Daily Record and Scottish Daily Express were 26.49 per cent, 28.05 per cent, 23.91 per cent, 20.05 per cent , 20.86 per cent and 21.83 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.
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 17.72 per cent of the paper’s 100 pages was given over to advertising.
The Times (Scotland) retails, Monday-Friday, for 90p.
