Community newspapers are vital for local economic growth. Caxton Newspapers publishes 2.8 million newspapers, printed for distribution throughout South Africa. To help with this, Caxton Media has implemented a geospatial strategy to support distribution and sales. This ensures that advertisers have accurate exposure to make informed decisions.
With the economy being what it is, people are more interested than ever in the deals retailers offer through community newspapers. It is vital to Caxton’s business to ensure that community news and advertising inserts arrive as regular as clockwork and reach the people who wait for them every week.
“A big part of Caxton’s sustained profitability has been the quality of our distribution network,” says Peter Scully, General Manager Distribution at Caxton Local Newspapers. “We use high quality data to cultivate profitable areas by publishing titles in communities we know will want to support marketers’ and advertisers’ products and services. That helps advertisers and marketers reach their potential markets, while readers in turn get a service they’re looking for.”
AfriGIS’s state-of-the-art mapping solution was specifically developed to accurately determine the number of homes, gated communities, institutions and businesses in a specified area. This helps Caxton confirm the number of copies to be delivered to each area, and where they need to be delivered to, and provides an accurate measure of bulk versus door-to-door delivery requirements. This process is dynamic and changes with the profile of distribution areas. Constant analyses are done to ensure the advertisers get the best possible exposure for their products.
The AfriGIS mapping solution offers several benefits for Caxton’s newspaper distribution model, including optimal routing and customised delivery schedules for different areas based on factors such as population density, traffic patterns and local events.
Caxton has a strong presence in the local market and has sustained reader and advertiser support. Through its fact-based, data science-driven approach, AfriGIS’s geospatial solution helps Caxton’s marketers and advertisers reach specific communities where their products will find markets. This helps boost readership of advertising inserts, with 63% of audience reading these, and a further 24% using them to find specific items they are looking for.
“AfriGIS processes the data layers, including demographic information, and updates them regularly to ensure they are accurate and verified,” says Marna Roos, Senior Client Consultant and Standards Enthusiast at AfriGIS. “Our team updates information every four months, providing clients like Caxton with automatic access. This process connects the distribution of newspapers to the physical world. Our solution enables Caxton to pre-determine delivery routes for each local newspaper title.”
Caxton selects communities based on their ability to purchase the goods and services that marketers sell. Address verification is important for distribution as it helps to identify and successfully serve legitimate customers, removes risk and ensures a more efficient and cost-effective operation.
“We use this specialised geospatial data to support our team of 400 people dedicated to distribution in Johannesburg,” says Edrich Cousins, GIS Manager at Caxton Local Media. “They know where every home is, every gated community, estate, complex, business, institution and organisation. They know how to route the delivery trucks, how many copies each must carry, and when and where they must be dropped.”
The continuous process saves money.
Caxton optimises the print volume to maximise output.
The retailers save on accurately targeted audiences.
Limiting the waste for all parties using accurate, quality data.
“Local papers are everywhere because people want the news, they want the advertising inserts and they want it on time. Just like you can’t check Tik-Tok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and e-mail without an online connection, you won’t get your community newspaper without geospatial data related to addresses countrywide that have been verified and actually exist,” says Cousins.
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AfriGIS
AfriGIS is the leading Geospatial Information Science company in Southern Africa that specialises in location-sensitive data and solutions. It provides customers across the board with a suite of web-based tools and APIs to connect to, enhance, and enrich their own data with location intelligence, insights, and trusted data. The organisation was founded in 1997 and celebrates more than 27 years in business. It is a level 1-certified broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) business, with more than 100 employees, in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town in South Africa, Dublin in Ireland, and Dhaka in Bangladesh