In recent years, regional Greece has met with a rapid economic development, and forms a dynamic market. Local and regional press is mostly read by men, by younger readers and by readers with a higher education, and by the higher classes. Thus is described a public which is particularly consumer orientated, and has significant buying power, but also has elevated demands.
Local newspapers are advantageous in that they cover the demands of their precinct via an organised network of subscriptions (alongside the selling in kiosks), and they show greater percentage of reading compared with the national newspapers. The Greek countryside satisfies its information needs to a great extent using local media. A lot of the local daily newspapers show a great level of distribution in their regions, which even reaches a 70% ratio (METRON ANALYSIS statistics).
Today, in an era when European development is addressed via decentralisation, the Association of Regional Daily Newspapers (DRNA) comes to fill a great void in communication. Founded by the 50 biggest local daily newspapers in Greece it is a powerful agent, and among other things aims to broaden the advertising market to cover the regional and local media, and successfully promote the advertising message to the readers of regional Greece.
The Association is in a position to represent all its members, suggesting advertising programs spanning almost all the regions and districts of Greece. It can also collect and distribute the films, as well as make sure that the related documentation is sent on time, without any fee. Thus both the advertised and the advertisers save valuable time and reduce costs, since they only have to communicate and co-operate with a single agent in order to secure their effective presence in the regions of their choice.
Since its first steps in the area of communication, DRNA developed an autonomous department for advertising – a non-profit one – so as to co-operate in the best possible way with the advertising companies as with the agents of the private sector and those of the extended public sector.
The significant additional services that the Association offers free of charge cover areas like interviews, press releases, reporting, journalists’ coverage of the ‘below the line’ activities, in co-operation with regional publications.
Through the perseverance and the hard work of the professional unions of the regional press, as statistics show, daily local press has finally taken hold of its deserved position, and claims its own space in the advertising market.