In 1977 we had in Denmark a labour dispute giving stoppages in the publishing of dailies for a period of 3 weeks and irregularities in the publishing of weeklies. This happens every second year, but in 1977 it was a special situation as the greatest publishing house in Denmark had a close down for 141 days, from the end of January to the end of June, when the summer holidays are starting. The publishing house in question, Det Berlingske Hus, was publishing the greatest popular dally, the greatest quality daily, the greatest Sunday paper and the greatest weekly (a programme magazine) together with a smaller weekly. Through different investigations we have found that the loyalty of the Danish readers is very big. In the 1977 the loyalty of the readers of the publications from the house in question was put to the test as they could not get their daily for more than 4 months, and this was the case for the readers of the greatest weekly too. We found a very great loyalty. As soon as the quality paper was printed again nearly all the readers were subscribing or buying it again, and they renewed their subscription the first time after the conflict.
The paper tells how a family orientated women's weekly, Hjemmet, widened its audience dramatically through a coordinated editorial/marketing effort. During a 5 year period after 1974 circulation almost doubled, without reducing sales of the main competitors. The writers explain the strategy which Hjemmet used to cope with its stagnant situation in 1974 including the evaluations and research results which led to this strategy. The paper also shows how a close cooperation between editorial and marketing people made possible a systematic product development without harming the editorial freedom. The communication results as well as circulation figures speak for themselves.
Newspapers and other periodicals are still an important part of the communications Industry today, and they make an immense contribution to the work of informing the masses, and thereby to the forming of opinions from adolescence on. It is therefore of primary importance that a freedom of "expression" should be made secure, as is indeed the case, I think, in the majority of industrialized countries . But once information is freely expressed in printed form, it must be placed just as freely at the disposal of the reader. Any citizen must be able to choose his or her reading matter in complete freedom. This implies some organization for the distribution and sale of periodicals, in the interest of maintaining that freedom. My subject today, - and my pleasure, - is to let you know of the French solution to this last problem. This solution originated right after the Second World War ... in 1947 to be exact! And for over 30 years, this solution has been providing satisfactory results both to publishers and to the public. We can say therefore that the system for distributing periodical publications in France is workable ... and, furthermore, it is economical!
This case tells about the launches of two special interest magazines and the results obtained. These launches were the very opposites to each other. One of the magazines was started very spontaneously on the solid insight and belief of its makers. The other one was launched after varied researches and tests. The first mentioned magazine can be said to have made a great success. Also the latter seems to be succeeding. Both methods seem to work.
This paper describes the thinking and planning that lay behind the launch of Britain's newest daily newspaper, the Daily Star, and the role played by research in the overall marketing operation. The main research project described in this paper was conducted during the first week of the launch. Its objectives were to assess the success of the promotion of this paper and the public's reaction to and readership of the new publication. Our paper also describes the main results of this study and the development of the Daily Star as its circulation area expanded to cover the whole of the British Isles.
Over the last 4-5 years there has been, in Italy, a rapid growth of book clubs as against a fairly contained growth of book sales in the book stores. This rapid growth has been caused by a type of public which is generally different from that of Book Store Customers and which finds in the Book Clubs the following two advantages: - Help in overcoming uncertainty in the choice of books; - Practical/Organisational Reasons.
This is an account of how the editorial staff and the marketing department through readership research were able to remodel an old traditional local newspaper in Denmark. The project that included market research as well as analysis of technical and economical aspects could be described by the term product development. A word which to many local newspapers implies an unnecessary commercial attitude, and which would make an editor feel uncomfortable.
This paper shows the findings of the first psychographics conducted in Italy on a national sample representative of the adult population ageing from 18 to 65 years and the practical application to a family weekly magazine which has a wide circulation. The results obtained were surprising both for the study of the Italian population and for the support provided to the publisher of the magazine in order to explain the position of his product with respect to the Italian' cultures and values generally. The survey took into consideration not only respondents' behaviours, but also the values from which they draw their inspiration and the cultures from which they originate. The use of this information had a dual aim: on the one hand it helped the editorial staff to examine closely the public-reader's expectations and to adjust the contents of the magazine, on the other it allowed the company to discredit, with media-planners and advertisers, the image of a magazine considered to be strictly catholic and addressed to a bigoted public not much open to consumption and social-life. On the contrary, a varied picture of the readers ensued, a cross-section of Italy made up, to a great extent, of Catholics involved socially and open to renewal. In this paper are illustrated the readers' behaviours, values and life styles compared with the whole population and with other mass-media audiences.
The research activities surrounding the successful launch in September 1978 of COMPANY, a monthly magazine aimed at independent young women and currently selling 300 copies, fell into three phases.
As yet, measurements of the effectiveness of campaigns in the industrial press are rarely used, and have not always found a specific adaptation to industrial problems. A study carried out by us on the direct and indirect effects of the industrial press showed that the latter was responsible, in 26% of cases, for the discovery of suppliers in industry ; in this respect, performance is higher than for exhibitions (19% only). Furthermore if a manufacturer is noticed and remembered because of an advertisement in the industrial press, his chances of being chosen as supplier are increased by 65%.