Regional newspapers and their readers still have a vital role to play in the UK’s burgeoning housing market, new research reveals.
A specially commissioned poll indicates it would be a “mistake” for estate agents to pull the plug on their traditional advertising in local papers.
The findings run counter to views expressed in industry trade magazine Estate Agent Today which advocated a withdrawal of the property pages from the regional press.
The research by leading regional publishers Johnston Press illustrated the overriding extent to which people seek out local newspapers when they getting into the property market.
Some51pc of buyers regularly read or looked at local newspapers before entering the market and an even greater percentage of vendors (56pc) do the same, the research reveals.
The poll also showed that 84 per cent of homeowners not in the market regularly read or looked at local newspapers.
Johnston commissioned independent researchers to speak with three groups – active vendors, active buyers and home owners not currently in the market. The research was conducted in Sheffield, Milton Keynes and the West Sussex town of Horsham; most interviews were conducted in person but some were handled over the telephone.
On the question of whether estate agents stop advertising in local newspapers, as expressed on the Industry Views section of Estate Agent Today, the Johnston research came firmly behind the local press.
“The research would suggest that would be a mistake, especially at a time when most agents are eager to boost stocklists,” said JP spokeswoman Jane Muirhead.
“Withdrawal from local newspapers will impact the ability of agents to attract market valuation invitations from potential vendors,” claims Jane.
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I’ve just sold my mother’s house, advertising through the Evesham Journal and estate agent’s window.
However, I think JP is missing a trick here. I’ve long thought that newspaper websites should be entertainment portals and if you want to retain advertisers, not just in property but in other areas as well, offer them something extra.
I’m looking for another property at the moment and rather than viewing static pictures on an agent’s website, I’d like to see what a house really looks like, particularly the dump I had the misfortune to waste my time on at the weekend.
But joking aside, get stuck in to video, let’s offer something extra to estate agents and our readers. Link what we have in our property pages to some really nice extras on our website, and encourage not only estate agents but also mortgage brokers, carpet firms and kitchen suppliers to advertise on the same property advert – maybe by giving the property seller a discount for allowing adverts on their video.
Just give it a go, nothing to lose and everything to gain.
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I can only say ‘they would say that, wouldn’t they’ to tho story.
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I can only say ‘they would say that, wouldn’t they’ to this story.
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I don’t know anybody who doesn’t go online to buy and sell a property. You get to view every room in the home, you can tour the local area, find out how much has been paid for nearby properties, etc etc…all without leaving your armchair. This is especially easy if you are moving across the country,you don’t even need to locate the best newspaper publication where you are moving to.
Newspapers are trying to put their estate agent advertisers online, but obviously if they don’t advertise they won’t go on the paper’s website so coverage is not as comprehensive as that provided by dedicated online property websites.
I’m surprised that online hasn’t killed off more estate agents as well as newspapers.
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Same old, same old!
Most of the regional press players are still running their titles on a business model that is 50+ years old. ‘Must retain jobs, motors, property…….at any cost’. In other words, the actual yield achieved per advert means that many papers run their property adverts at a loss, week, after week, after week. The papers are still full of jobs and motors adverts because they’re given away cheap in the mistaken belief that people still wait for the paper to come out to see what’s for sale.
Here’s the thing, if they stopped taking low yielding advertising they could increase their profitability and maybe start reinvesting in what local papers are really good at – the reporting of news at a local level.
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I’ve always thought that newspapers should muscle in so that people can avoid estate agents and their appalling charges for what are little more than tobacconists’ shop windows, although they charge rather more than 50p per card.
£99 ads or whatever… pix, yes, video, deals with pet conveyancers and away you go.
Of course, would need some sort of enterprise from local papers (!!!) and I think Sir Ray did tickle the idea some time back without really going for it.
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As an estate agent who pulled out of the the Sunderland echo 5 years ago as a result of 1. Poor quality production of photographs
2. Regular mistakes made by the paper which deviated from the copy we sent them 3. An arrogance from the management when the mistakes were brought to their attention 4. Being mislead during a meeting with the MD and production / print / Manger (unknown to them we had expert independent advice which totally contradicted there explanation and now that the printing has been moved to an alternative press , the production has much improved) . We cannot but feel the worm has turned .
Staff are leaving @ a rapid rate , the internet is chewing into there market , free papers offering an affordable rate and an increasing circulation are entering the market . All I can say is what comes round goes round ! Good riddance to an over priced , poor quality and arrogant institution .
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Maybe JP could use their experienced quality staff photographers to take property photos… Oooops sorry I forgot they don’t have any staff photographers anymore…. So much for quality and tradition!!! Hypocrites!!!!
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Did someone say local paper? I know through contacts that the pathetically few and inexperienced reporters on my local neither live in the area nor know anything about it. In fact we haven’t seen a reporter in our town of maybe 35,000 people for months. Get local, get real and get business JP.
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Web is only way forward. Papers don’t have the reach any more. Thanks to JP policy which has wrecked the sales of local papers. My local that once sold about 14_000 I hear now sells under 7000. No good to advertisers JP but damage is done.
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I bet even if you asked someone who worked in regional newspapers where they would go to look for a new house, I bet they would say ‘rightmove’, I doubt many would even look in their own paper.
The horse has bolted no use closing the stable door now!
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Speaking as an agent, the newspaper doesnt sell more houses, but it gets more poperties to sell Let me tell you a story of some agents that tripled their rental market appraisals within a nine to twelve months.
Grantham is a boring little market town in the East Midlands, with a population of 35,000, and if you include the villages, 54,000. The local rag is called the Grantham Journal. A boring little newspaper in a boring little town. Everyone says its dead, local isn’t where it is at. That is until you delve a little deeper. It sells 16,000 copies a week, that’s nearly one per household, week in, week out. People pay money for this .. why .. because it tells people what is happening in Grantham. . So, if you live in Stockport, Manchester, London or Chelmsford, you wouldn’t be interested in the Grantham Journal, but the people of Grantham are.
Local media was an essential business tool from the Victorian times. However, with TV and now the ‘tinterweb’, the message travels around the whole country, and even the whole of the world, so newspapers, websites and TV have no incentive to limit themselves.
But there are thousands of TV stations and millions of websites, so the numbers are diluted as there is such a huge choice. What would a TV station or website have to pay to be guaranteed almost 100% blanket coverage ? Yet, if I was an agent, I (and you) have that medium already, it’s the local rag. 70% to 80% of the agents landlords would live in Grantham ….. talk about captive market. But don’t doll out the usual 5 x 5 grid. Yes that makes you look good in your eyes, but ask yourself. Why do nearly every household buy the local newspaper? The clue is in the title .. local news.
People don’t read adverts, they read news … give them some something to read, give them a story, THEY are interested in. Why? well when given the chance, people are a lot more interested in what they’re interested in, as opposed to what their neighbours are doing.
What of the internet I hear you cry? Yes that is as important, even more important, but it will be local internet. Local is everything when it comes to Google. Google rankings are strongly based on local items eg people type in .. ‘Letting agents in Grantham’ of ‘Lettings agents in Hammersmith’ … not just ‘lettings agents’
Local people writing about local things will be the real kings of media, and they will be local in a totally different sense. They will be the narrators and story tellers of interest for groups that actually have aligned interests. You as an agent have an advantage, you have a subject that everyone is interested in …… property.
You have such an advantage, you are an expert in a subject everyone is interested in. Tell that story, and people (landlords) will beat a path to your door for market appraisals.
.. but does it work? Scores on the doors …
At one office, where I saw them use the system; they had carried out 6 market appraisals per month consistently throughout 2010, 2011 and 2012 … all very consistent you would say? Nine months later, that number had risen to a consistent average of 15 to 18 per month. Another agent I helped saw appraisals rise from a consistent 4 per month to a consistent 14 per month .
I would say that worked .. wouldnt you?
If you wanted a chat on how to write these stories, I have been writing them for over a year. Very soon I will be starting a company that will either train people how to do these stories. However, some agents don’t have the time, so we will also be offering a service where we can write them for you .. anyway .. more of that later in the month.
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Estate agents are not silly. They know sales of once respected weeklies are half what they used to be five years ago, and that they no longer cover local news properly because they are under staffed. If only JP had heeded the warnings from the shop floor . It is pay back time for Kremlin control that wrecked the local character of some once-superb local papers. Now they want the agents to bail them out by putting ads in sub standard papers that fewer and fewer people buy!
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Dave is spot on. I am an ex journo looking at houses. Rightmove it is.
My local weekly now has a very thin selection. My guess is because it had slashed its reporting and editing staff in past few years and now has no reporters living locally with local contacts and knowledge. Local news is key to attracting readers and agents. But staff cost money….
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Why would anyone stick with a newspaper that once sold 116,000 a day at peak and is now lucky to sell 16,000? No names for sake of poor sods working there, but it could be any number of papers in terms of decline.
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