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Newspapers
always printed in fixed columns. Most still do. And a few who offer
advertising which "can cut across columns" (measured in sq.cm.)
continue to follow fixed columns format for editorial.
In 2002, the Indian Govt's media release agency DAVP (Directorate
of Audio & Visual Publicity) decreed that the size unit of all ads
released by DAVP would be measured & paid for in sq.cm. This was
a change from the prevailing rate per column cm, obviously to standardise
the comparative rates between publications.
Prior to this DAVP had already standardised advertising rates based
on a combination of actual newsprint consumption, circulation, area
of influence, production quality, etc. The move to square cm. was
presumably to compensate for the difference in column widths of
different newspapers.
Having thus been forced to announce rates per sq. cm. (initially
for DAVP only),a number of Indian publications started preparations
for the "square cm. regime".
Global
Trends
After checking out newspapers in major "advertising economies",
we discovered that very few newspapers worldwide offer advertising
rates per sq. cm.
Here is a brief summary:
| Country |
No.
of Newspapers who Offer
|
|
Ad
rates per sq. cm. |
Ad
rates per col. cm. |
| USA |
Negligible |
Majority |
| Japan |
Negligible |
Majority |
| China |
Negligible |
Majority |
| Australia |
Negligible |
Majority |
| Middle
East |
Negligible |
Majority |
| *UK |
Sun
Times
Guardian |
The
rest |
| *India |
Times
Of India
Economic Times
Maharashtra Times
Navbharat Times
Rajasthan Patrika
|
The
rest
Note: All dailies perforce
offer rates per sq. cm. to DAVP |
From
the table it is quite clear that barring top 3 UK dailies, there
are very few newspapers who have converted ad rate structures from
column cm. to sq.cm.
India can be considered as a special case - DAVP, the Govt. agency
(which some say is India's largest media release agency) has triggered
the change over from column cm. to square cm. As mentioned earlier,
it has been DAVP's continuing effort to "standardise" ad rates.
The latest move (2002) was to standardize ad rates across varying
column widths. This in turn lead to a steady trickle of newspapers
converting to rate cards based on square cm.
Conclusion
• By adopting the square cm. model, newspapers effectively
standardize column widths to 1 cm - making the system biased towards
advertisers.
• There is a global tendency to reduce newspaper sizes
to optimize newsprint consumption & minimize raw material cost
- this actually increases the significance of each square cm for
the advertiser. (The significance of each square cm. of space is
inversely proportional to the overall size of newspaper page - the
larger the page, the lesser the significance of each sq. cm. )
• Newspapers who have reduced physical page size prior
to converting ad rate structures from column cm. to sq. cm. have
tried to compensate by increasing effective rate per sq. cm.
• Newspapers have used also square cm. conversion as
a tool to slip in price hikes.
• By & large, newspapers have not converted to square
cm. unless forced by external agencies / circumstances.
It
is not surprising that there are not many takers among newspapers
for the square cm. rate card!
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