Gauteng household expenditure 'NAB'd' by Caxton newspapers

By accessing The Bureau of Market Research's (BMR) analysis of the Average Annual Cash Household Expenditure in Gauteng by Living Standard Measure (LSM) Group 2003 report, NAB have developed a model that estimates Caxton's penetration into the province's vast spending power. "We've always believed that we were operating in the right economic areas of the province to maximise potential response for our advertisers, but now we have tangible proof which verifies this claim," says Bowles.

"Although we might only be distributing our newspapers to roughly 35% or a third of all households in the province every week, we estimate that we're accessing over two-thirds of Gauteng's household expenditure every week of the year. For advertisers, this provides the platform to 'fish where the fish are' and maximise their exposure to the right markets that have the ability to react".

In specific categories of household expenditure the weighting is even more dramatic.
For instance, Bowles estimates that Caxton community newspapers delivered to Gauteng households access over 80% of spending power for the travelling, recreation, entertainment and sports industries. Household expenses (HE) on communication is another key sector dominantly accessed by Caxton newspapers in Gauteng (75% of all HE). Other categories that the group penetrate convincingly include education (70% of all spending), financial services and savings (70%) and medical/dental (69%).

"Obviously we've always strived to maintain a model of distribution that delivers advertisers to consumers with the economic means to respond and that's kept us in business. But make no mistake, we deliver to a massive number of households every week and in no way pick elitist geographic segments. Caxton's verified distribution far surpasses that of any of the sold weekend and daily newspapers in the province.

Even household spending on 'commodity' type categories like food (54%) and clothing (55%) are reached predominantly week after week through Caxton community newspapers. In short, we have a mass medium designed to access as much of the household spend an advertiser is interested in, in the most affordable manner with a view of them getting a great return from their advertising investment."

Caxton community newspapers had a verified free distribution (average net distribution) of 1 022 967 copies in Gauteng every week for the period July to December 2004.