Tonagh urges advertisers to look beyond mainstream media to niche titles

Former News Corp executive Peter Tonagh says media buyers should increase spending with niche digital publications such as Betoota Advocate and The Squiz, arguing such titles have stronger bonds with audiences than mainstream publications.

The ex-Foxtel chief executive who currently sits on the board of cinema operator Village Roadshow  said audiences are "much more receptive and engaged" with news sites that are targeted to specific demographics. But despite this, niche and specialist titles had often been overlooked in advertising campaigns.

Peter Tonagh is a member of the Village Roadshow board. Credit: Louie Douvis

"It's hard to get attention from media buyers because they’re so niche ... But there's a huge level of trust [in niche titles] and highly engaged readers, in a brand safe environment," he said.

"The media buyers are increasingly under pressure financially so they want to deal with scale players. They get a campaign brief and go to News Corp and Nine Entertainment Co and they don’t have to deal with lots of the small guys. It gets more costly and hard to justify."

Nine is the owner of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Mr Tonagh recently backed the launch of the inaugural Media UpStart, an event held in Google's Pyrmont offices, which brought in a group of specialist titles to talk about their readership and content to an audience of about 200 people including media buyers.

This included satirical publication The Betoota Advocate, sports-focused digital news site Basketball Forever and female-focused weekday email and podcast The Squiz. Mr Tonagh was one of the first investors in The Squiz, whose supporters include Helen McCabe and Caltex director Penny Winn.

Clancy Overell from the Betoota Advocate with Treasurer Scott Morrison and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young at the launch of the Betoota Advocate's book . Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

"There is incredible trust [in these titles]," Mr Tonagh said, adding that surveys of The Squiz's readership showed almost all readers considered it a trusted news source. "Compare that to mainstream media," he said, with major surveys like Ipsos typically finding trust at around 50 per cent for television, radio and newspapers.

"There's a real sense of partnership when you advertise with [specialist titles] because you're not dealing with a rep, you're dealing with the founders. You're able to tailor something that fits for you and there's more integration opportunities."

Despite the cut through with audiences, he said one of the problems facing these publications is a lack of consistent data around audiences that is accepted by advertisers and brands.

"It's a clear issue," he said. "I don't know if it's possible but ideally we'll take some groups and standardise the measurement and simplify things to make it easier."

Advertisers typically go to the tech titans like Facebook and Google to target specific groups, but Mr Tonagh said this approach overlooked other crucial factors of a successful advertising campaign.

"They can then target the group [on social media] but is it actually within an environment that helps them to sell? Effective advertising needs more than just the right audience, it needs the right message, right environment and right audience," he said.