Today’s ABC results should be seen as only part of the story, according to Simon Irwin, the editorial director of the Kent Messenger Group.

His group publishes the UK’s biggest-selling weekly paper, the Kent messenger, and he told HoldtheFrontPage that he still felt tradaitional circulation figures were important.

But the group also publishes a number of free titles and websites and owns several radio stations, and he said that in the multi-platform world of expanding media, a matrix was needed to tie all the audiences of these products together.

He said: “Circulation is still important – it measures how many papers you have sold.

“Is readership an important measure also? Yes – it always has been.

“But it’s too early to wave goodbye to the ABCs.”

He added: “We can say they are less important, but it’s who uses them – our commercial colleagues and the people buying adverts.

“We at the Kent Mesenger Group try to offer advertisers a way of reaching audiences through a range of media, be it paid-for or free papers, Internet and radio.

“The point is that these days you don’t take circulation figures on their own – they are part of the story.

“That’s the message the industry needs to get across.”

See also: