ASA Adjudication on River Newspapers NI Ltd

Ad

A regional press ad stated "Sometimes you need to advertise your business locally. Sometimes you need to go further. Reach a potential population of over a million people. RIVER MEDIA. *Derry: 213,000. Kildare: 186, 335. Meath: 162, 831. Donegal 147, 264. Wicklow: 126, 194. Cavan: 64, 003. Sligo: 60, 894. Monaghan: 55, 997. Letrim: 28959. Total Population: 1,045, 477. The asterisk was linked to a footnote stating "Figure taken from 2001 Northern Ireland Census". Another footnote stated "Figures taken from C.S.O census - 2006".

Issue

Derry Journal & Donegal Democrat Newspaper Group objected that the ad was misleading, because they believed it implied readership of the Derry News could be equivalent to the listed population figures, whereas they did not believe independent audits of readership or circulation could substantiate that.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

The Derry News Ltd (Derry News) said the ad contained a number of simple messages. They said it listed the titles owned by River Media, the populations in the catchments where these titles were in circulation, and asked readers to call their local sales manager. They said the ad was aimed at larger advertisers who might wish to advertise across their group of papers and who would not mistake population figures for readership or circulation figures. Derry News said it had not been their intention to imply that the figures quoted represented or approximated to their readership. They sent circulation figures from January to June 2008 for River Media titles and asserted these would be well known to their advertisers.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted the ad stated "Total Population: 1,045, 477" and that footnotes gave the source of the figures quoted as recent population censuses for Northern Ireland and Eire. However,  we considered that the ad was ambiguous, and that the figures listed by County, together with the claim "reach a potential population of over a million people", could imply that those numbers of people were likely to see an ad placed in River Media titles and therefore exaggerated the readership of those publications. We concluded the ad was likely to mislead.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)