The Northampton Chronicle in the UK’s East Midlands region beat their sales targets by 50 per cent, despite the economic slowdown and widespread retraction in advertising spend. The paper, with a sharp focus on business and driving revenues, decided to employ NRS Media’s AD Impact™ revenue solution for press, and were rewarded with great results.

With newspapers globally haemorrhaging as a result of declining readership and slowing economies, the Northampton Chronicle showed that advertisers are still open to brand propositions, so long as they represent good value.

Northampton and the surrounding county have a long tradition of newspaper publishing. This paper is the leading publication in the county, with 75 years of serving the local communities since the first edition of the Chronicle and Echo.

No one is Immune

Despite their community standing and popularity, the paper was still feeling the effects of the sliding economy. In addition, their competitors had launched an aggressive strategy to attack the marketplace at the same time.

A fresh focus on driving revenues and getting back to business emerged from a major restructure, similar to many within the Press industry. To partner them through this process, the Group’s owner, Johnston Press, chose NRS Media.

A Long-term Relationship

Taking a different approach than their competitors, the Northampton Chronicle and NRS Media held an event for local advertisers to help them develop their annual advertising strategy.

This drove a strong message into the marketplace and led to them not just achieving their initial campaign budget, but positioning themselves as proactive and supportive of local business.

Johnston Press General Manager Simon Kennedy said, “We’re delighted with the result. There’s not very many other ways of generating over £350,000 of advertising contracts in a reasonably tight timeframe.”

The AD Impact™ solution was a pathfinder programme and as a result of its outstanding success, NRS Media has secured another five centres with more in the pipeline.