The early general news (EGN) section remains the key entry point into a newspaper and continues to capture readers’attention. But does it offer advertisers the biggest bang for their bucks?
“Everyone reads it. It contains the most important news of the day and it’s what drags people into the paper,”The Australian national advertising director David Williams says, describing EGN as “primetime” newspaper placement.
While EGN advertising comes with a higher price tag, The Courier-Mail and Sunday Courier advertising director Stephen Tait says “this load is based on exclusivity. You are guaranteed a position in the early part of the paper”.
Similarly The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun Herald and The Age group director, classifieds, Michael Robinson says “it’s still a demand and supply environment—advertisers are willing to pay and keep coming back because [EGN] works for them.”
So what are the benefits of this section for advertisers?
Robinson says studies around the world show EGN continues to be a place of high reader traffic. It also offers advertisers connectivity to readers, because unlike TV, EGN isn’t pushed at them.
“Newspapers are invited into the readers’ minds or world and this is useful as a way to communicate with them when their minds are open.”
But while EGN generates high reader involvement, this isn’t necessarily higher than other sections of a newspaper. “If a reader is passionate about food, wine and lifestyle, then their level of involvement would be high for [those] sections,” Robinson says.
While the range of EGN readers is very broad and clear, demographics are hard to come by. Robinson says some subtle differences appear to exist on weekends compared to weekdays.
For example, he says weekend EGN attracts a greater proportion of younger readers than during the week: those aged 25-34 who are perhaps looking to read up on the news of the week in their own time. “For them, it is as much about gleaning information as it is about satisfying ‘me time’.”
Publishers don’t believe the growing sectionalisation of newspapers has diminished the importance of EGN. “It’s just that the tastes of readers have expanded and with that, the diversity of our offering has as well,” Robinson says.
So where does an advertiser get the best value?
“It entirely depends on their objectives,” Tait says.
The West Australian advertising manager Les Corner adds that no secret formula exists. “The litmus test is the results,” he says.
“EGN could be the right environment for an ad but is it the right environment proportionate to costs? The cost of an ad on page five is going to be more than in, say, the Fresh section. You are paying for eyeballs… for numbers.
“You still have property and travel advertisers in EGN, [even though there are separate property and travel sections]. A lot of advertisers use a combination of EGN and other sections,”Williams notes.
