Newspaper Society starts planning site

The Newspaper Society (NS) has launched an online planning system featuring regional newspaper titles.

The planning portal, called www.planregionalpress.co.uk, provides a single point of online access to data sources and planning systems.

The Web solution was created after a consultation with 10,000 agencies and client companies on how the regional press could improve the way it did business. An online planning system was priority for 37 per cent of respondents.

NS marketing director Chris Stanley says: “The rich variety and geographic flexibility of local newspapers are core strengths but these factors have made gathering planning information complex and time-consuming.”

The portal serves as a fast-track route to planning professionals at each of the industry’s sales operations; Reaching the Regions data and the Newspaper Society database; a catalogue of industry research; circulation and readership information; information on mapping companies; and a library of case studies.

The portal follows hot on the heels of Adfast, an Internet-based artwork delivery system launched in May, also on the back of the consultation exercise.

The consultation exercise was conducted as part of the Creating New Perspectives campaign, which aimed to attract a greater share of national advertising customers to regional press.