ABC newspaper sales figures are only part of the story when measuring the reach of regional titles, says the Newspaper Society.

The body, which represents around 1,300 newspapers across the UK, says major changes in the industry in the past year, including the launch of a part-paid, part-free Manchester Evening News, and the blurring between evening and morning titles, has made it increasingly difficult to analyse ABC circulation data.

It said today that the current framework (morning, evening, paid weekly, free weekly, ABC bulk) failed to allow analysis in any meaningful way.

Instead, it is pressing ahead with plans to develop a “multimedia portfolio audience currency” and is working alongside JICREG and ABC Electronic to build an expanded database of regional press print and online platforms.

The Society has set up the Portfolio Audience Group, a small group of regional press research, circulation and readership experts who are looking to achieve a system of audience measurement and reporting which reflects the wider portfolio of print and online, paid-for and free platforms which now makes up the regional press.

And the Society has now published 28 regional press media portfolio case studies on its website.

It says they show advertisers and agencies how publishers are broadening their platforms beyond the core daily and weekly newspaper products, to produce supplements, niche publications, lifestyle magazines and websites, as well as branching into radio, TV and other communications methods.

David Newell, director of the Newspaper Society, said: “Readers can obtain local news, information and entertainment on the move and in a way that fits their changing lifestyles and reading habits.

“We have seen major investment in new product development and innovative systems over the past year.

“The challenge for publishers and the NS is to develop a robust system of multimedia audience measurement which gives advertisers and agencies more meaningful figures.”

The Society is also represented on a Brand Reporting Taskforce set up by ABC to explore how to develop ABC as a currency that reflects the expansion of today’s media businesses.

According to the latest NS Annual Industry Survey, as well as 1,300 core regional newspaper titles, the number of regional press websites increased from 509 in 2004 to 828 in 2005, the number of stand-alone magazines and niche publications grew from 400 to nearly 600 and the number of regional press owned radio stations grew from 20 to 28. There were 16 launches of new regional newspaper titles.