In Australian media news this week, Bauer launches WhichCar to compare new cars online, EMMA and Roy Morgan provide newspaper readership figures, radio reports ad revenue growth in July, and Facebook, Twitter and Hootsuite and Instagram announce updates.

 

Bauer launches WhichCar website

Bauer Xcel Media has launched WhichCar, a “jargon-free” website for consumers to research and compare new cars and connect with dealers.

Utilising the expertise from Bauer’s car titles Wheels, Motor and 4×4 Australia, WhichCar features information in the form of reviews, videos, detailed specifications and comparison tools.

 

Latest newspaper readership figures

The latest figures from EMMA (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) show print and digital newspaper media reached 16.4 million Australians over four weeks, with digital readership growing 3% year-on-year to 11.6 million and print readership declining 4% to 13.8 million.

Roy Morgan figures for newspaper readership for the 12 months to June 2015 show:

• Monday to Friday newspaper editions declined 11.3%,
• Saturday editions declined 8.8% overall, and
• Sunday editions declined 7.1%.

Most mastheads were unable to secure enough digital growth to compensate for print losses, Roy Morgan says.

EMMA also provided the following insights around population breakdown:

• Newspaper media reaches 92% of Australia’s metropolitan population, including nine in 10 adults aged over 14,
• PC is the most popular digital platform for all major age groups (53% of under-25s, 57% of 25-39s, 65% of 40-54s and 54% of over-55s),
• mobile readership is skewed towards younger readers – 20% of under-25s and 34% of 25-39s, compared with 16% of 40-54s and 3% of over-55s, and
• tablet readership skews in the mid-range of age groups: 21% of 25-39s and 20% of 40-54s, compared to 10% of over-55s and 10% of under-25s.

 

Radio ad growth in July

Commercial Radio Australia has announced figures from Deloitte showing record growth in metropolitan advertising revenue for July, up 8.6% to more than $61 million. Here is the list of cities in order of year-on-year growth:

1. Adelaide – up 12% to more than $5.8 million,
2. Melbourne – up 10% to $19 million,
3. Brisbane – up 8% to $9.8 million,
4. Sydney – up 8% to $18.9 million, and
5. Perth – up 5% to $8 million.

 

Facebook business pages updates

Facebook has announced a new feature for business pages that allows businesses and the public to connect through private messaging. The new features include the ability for:

• People to send messages to a business page directly from a local awareness ad,
• Businesses to reply to comments privately with a message,
• Businesses to identify which pages are most highly responsive to customer messages, through a rating badge, and
• Businesses to manage messages more efficiently and respond faster.

 

Twitter launches ads editor

Twitter has launched a new ads editor tool enabling advertisers to create and edit numerous campaigns at once, to be available to all advertisers globally “over the next few weeks”.

The ads editor works with Excel spreadsheets to allow users to:

• Create campaigns using a spreadsheet to upload,
• upload updated spreadsheets to apply changes instantly, and
• edit campaign end dates, budgets and targeting criteria at scale.

 

Hootsuite integrates with Instagram

Social media management dashboard Hootsuite has announced its partnership with Instagram, allowing users to link their Instagram account to:

• Schedule and publish Instagram content,
• monitor and engage with Instagram audiences,
• securely share access to Instagram accounts across teams,
• create team workflows, including assignments and approvals for Instagram, and
• cross-promote Instagram content on various social networks.