National Post Uses CMR to Show Advertisers Its 8.1 Million Strong Network

Situation

The National Post is the flagship print product of the Postmedia Network, with national and Toronto editions published Monday through Saturday. Established in 1998, it is a relatively new newspaper built on the history and reputation of the Financial Post.

Issue

The National Post’s audience is increasingly reading its content on multiple platforms. It needed a report to capture that information and convey to advertisers a rich story of its total network.

Solution

The team at the National Post turned to ABC’s Consolidated Media Report. Douglas Kelly, publisher of the National Post, explained why it was the first Canadian newspaper to participate in the program, “This project is important not just to the Post, but to the entire industry. It recognizes the changes going on in publishing and shows how we are adapting to new realities. The reaction has been very positive and has helped position the National Post as an industry leader on this issue.”

Results

The National Post has now released two consecutive Consolidated Media Reports featuring a wide range of channels, including print and digital circulation, social media metrics, e-newsletter deliveries, traditional and mobile website traffic and app downloads.

In addition to separate data points for each of its products, the National Post featured a new total network number on the front page of the report. It is another groundbreaking move; the National Post is the first newspaper in the U.S. or Canada to present a cumulative number.

Kelly explained the reason behind the 8.1 million total National Post network number “It is a cumulative number of our consumer contacts. Although it’s calculated on a partially duplicated basis, for the first time it portrays our distribution beyond traditional vehicles such as the print newspaper.”

One of those nontraditional distribution channels is social media. These channels are a crucial part of the relationship between the National Post andFinancial Post and its audience because they expose users to the Post’sother digital properties and serve as content streams. The Post’s CMR includes more than 107,000 Twitter followers, more than 13,000 Facebook likes, nearly 63,000 Foursquare followers and nearly 10,000 Tumblr followers.

“The explosion of social media and the increasing role it plays in flagging and distributing our content makes it a critical part of any CMR,” said Kelly.

Social media isn’t the only new distribution method receiving attention at thePost “Our mobile strategy reflects our objectives for any number of platforms: make our content available and adapt to the medium of delivery to create the best reader and advertiser experience,” noted Kelly.

For the Post, that means creating mobile websites and specially designed apps for tablets, smartphones and other devices. Cumulatively, the mobile websites of the National Post and Financial Post received more than 1.3 million page views in March. The apps for the publications have been downloaded more than 200,000 times.

With its new cumulative network number and its product-by-product breakout, the CMR gives the Post a single, independently verified document to turn to when discussing its brand and that makes it valuable for its ad sales team.

“The CMR is one of several tools in our advertising reps’ arsenal,” said Kelly. “Although it is not a document to build pricing—at least not at this point—it does convey our strategy which is to provide a desirable audience across any number of platforms. We believe very strongly in this project as the way forward and plan to continue issuing a report twice a year.”

For More Information

To discuss reporting options and formats for a CMR, including a customized quote, please contact your marketing manager.