Good day fellow interns. Long time, I know. At S&A its always so busy and fun I barely have time to blog (right Geraldine). Working on events, media calls,clippings and PR value have been keeping me very busy. Yes PR is important as i am sure you all know, but that is not the value i am talking about. I am going to be addressing PR Value or better known as Media Coverage value in terms of numbers , $$$ to be exact.
When i was first shown how to calculate the PR value by 1 of my colleagues I was left rather confused. But that did not deter me from trying, i told her that let me try, where i get lost i will come to you for help. And so i grabbed a calculater, the clips to b calculated and what i would like to call 'The PR Value Bible', the Malaysian 2009 Media Planning Guide. When you open this book, it will take you back to the school days during Mathematics lessons.
ALL publications are listed in it, individually priced. The first thing that suprised me was the total amount i got, it made me calculate more than 5 times-because i found it hard to believe. The numbers were way too big than what i imagined. I went back to my colleague and she confirmed the calculation and told me sometimes the price even doubles, it just depends on
the paper/magazine.
The second thing that suprised me was the difference between the magazines and newspapers. I have always believed that magazines (because they appear to be more appealing) are expensive. No, that is not the case newspapers are very expensive, which means if your effort appeared on both a magazine and newspaper, the PR Value will be much, much higher in a color newspaper. This is due mostly to the circulation; a magazine sells a certain a mount of magazines in a month, whereas a newspaper circulates multiple times in a month. THUS IT IS CHEAP TO GET COVERAGE IN A GLOSSY MAGAZINE THAN A COLOR NEWSPAPER. So those who buy space understand this better.
However there is still a blank in my mind that i need you all 's help on this one. Magazine's life-span is longer than newspapers (if you have done PR Value calculations yet) don't you think the magazine charges should be higher than how much they are. Not higher than color newspaper of course when you consider circulation, but because of their life-span.
Hope to get your opinion on this one.
1 comment:
Hi Lena
Here's my take on your post, must say I felt (or should I say still feel) magazines should have a higher PR value. But just as u rightly said, Glossy doesn't mean costly.
Yes you are right, the life span of magazines is longer than that of newspapers but PR Value is determined by the circulation of the media. In most cases you will find that newspapers are dailies and as such it is difficult to compare dailies with magazines, which are published once a week or monthly. I guess that's where the "glossiness" loses out on the money.
Newspapers also have a wide audience; it is read by people in all walks of life from the ordinary Joe to the very people in authority, hence the higher value. However this is not so for magazines; magazines have a specific and targeted audience. Some are specifically for women, some for men , and the segmentation would go further to reflect the audience’s tastes and status in society.
Come to think of it, I read my first copy of Cleo in tertiary :-(, when I could actually afford to buy a copy.
i guess nothing can beat the newspaper when it comes to informing, educating and entertaining everyone with no boundaries!!!
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