Media buyers
including MediaCom’s Nick Keenan have argued “common sense” suggests Fairfax
will give ad rate concessions when it takes The Sydney Morning Herald and The
Age compact, even though Fairfax has been claiming it will not reduce its page
rates.
With the two
mastheads set to transition into tabloid format at the beginning of March, the
media industry has been itching to find out exactly how Fairfax will handle its
new ad rates.
Media buyers have been saying a smaller page size should mean lower costs. But Fairfax has argued it is replacing its old rate card, based on centimetres on the page, with a new rate card based on “impact”, which implies the media giant will be keeping full page rates the same despite the reduced size.
While this might be Fairfax’s public position, MediaCom’s head of implementation planning and investment in Melbourne, Nick Keenan, has suggested that the most suitable option for Fairfax would be to make concessions for agencies and large advertisers.
“The common-sense approach would be that they will negotiate at an agency level, but publicly they will keep the full-page rate card the same,” Keenan said. “I’d say all contracted commitments will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis, but that will be up to the agencies to push for it, and up to Fairfax to determine the commercial implications.
“If advertisers are getting less centimetres, they’ll want a restructure of how they’re charged, whether this is done in public or not. If Fairfax publicly dropped the rate card, it would open the floodgates, but you’ll probably find they’ll be negotiating concessions with the agencies. These conversations have started already.”
AdNews spoke with numerous other prominent media buyers, who all wished to remain anonymous. They all stated they expected Fairfax would make concessions despite its staunch public stance, with some saying discussions were already happening. However, AdNews understands Fairfax has not yet made any significant concessions.
Fairfax Metro Media director of sales strategy and operations Sarah Keith said: “We have completed world-first neuro research with ground-breaking findings on engagement and ad effectiveness. This has helped determine our rate card, changes to ad shapes and opportunities for advertisers.
“We are moving to the concept of selling the ‘impact’ of an advertisement and that ‘impact’ is based upon the percentage of the page that advertisers buy. The price that is charged for this ‘impact’ is built from an audience, environment and engagement model.
“It’s not just about readership or circulation. Our ‘visual impact pricing’ model is based on proportionality. Further details will be revealed at launch
This article first appeared in the 08 February 2013 edition of AdNews, in print and on iPad. Click here to subscribe for more news, features and opinion.
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