The rolling coverage of the News of the World affair on both the Guardian and the Telegraph gave a first indication of what could be a disturbing new development for News International - a flight of advertising revenue from the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.
Both papers reported that car manufacturer Renault has just done this.
According to trade journal Marketing Week Renault will discontinue its advertising with The Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times “until further notice”.
In a statement, Renault said: “Renault acknowledges the concerns raised regarding the allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World. Is a result of the seriousness of the allegations, we can confirm that Renault has reviewed its media advertising plans. We have decided to cease advertising in News International publications until further notice.”
Marketing Week noted that Renault spent £266,000 advertising in the News of the World from January to May 2011. There is no indication of the value of advertising in the other News International papers.
It was another car manufacturer Ford that led the flight of advertisers from the News of the World. Renault's act may be a one-off or it could presage more bad news for what is a highly toxic brand.
4 comments:
I'm not at all convinced that newspaper advertising works.
I never read newspaper ads. Only exception is stuff to do with special offers and sales.
When I worked at the local paper I got to advertise my room free of charge when I moved house. We got not ONE reply from the paper.
I made up about 50 flyers and stuck them all over the unversity, on every pinboard I could find, as well as sundry posters, doors, etc etc and we got endless responses.
Even the local fish and chipshop window gave us more replies than the local paper. I learned a lot from that. It's not how many people "read" the paper that counts. It's how many read your ad!
I think Renault is well shot of News International.
Did you know that online newspapers only make a TENTH of the ad revenue of their paper cousins... I think the press is pretty much dead in the water these days.
I don't know Gleds.. for a lot of brands it must be worth it or else they would not advertise in newspapers...
I would so enjoy it if this scandal was the beginning of the end of Rupert Murdock's influence. Probably too much to hope but miracles can happen.
Me too Susan. It would be good to see his power curtailed.
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