THE ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY has received a complaint from the Western Telegraph about The Pembrokeshire Herald’s advertising claims.

In recent weeks, The Pembrokeshire Herald has carried advertising saying that the newspaper has more combined online and print readers than its nearest rival.

The Western Telegraph disagrees with this and has therefore made a complaint.

This is the second complaint made by the Western Telegraph about the Herald’s circulation claims.

A similar complaint made to the ASA in 2014 about The Pembrokeshire Herald’s media pack and marketing by the Western Telegraph’s then publisher, Dean Merrick, which was later rejected.

In his complaint, Mr Merrick alleged that information provided to customers regarding the number of copies being printed per week were ‘untrue’. Mr Merrick also challenged the Herald’s weekly readership figures.

An investigation by the ASA confirmed that the Pembrokeshire Herald correctly advertised that the publication prints 10,000 copies per week.

The regulatory body is also allowing The Herald to advertise a readership figure of 17,000, on the basis that it is made clear to readers that this is an estimated figure.

At the time, Herald publisher Thomas Sinclair said: “At the time of the complaint I said that it was a pretty desperate act. Now, the Advertising Standards Authority reviewed both our print run and circulation figures and they were satisfied that we were able to substantiate both. So my view remains the same about Dean Merrick’s actions.”

Mr Sinclair added: “The number of readers a paper has every week is calculated by the average number of people a newspaper is seen by; that is called the “pass on rate”. We checked our position against the accepted industry benchmark and erred on the side of caution when calculating our total readership.  If anything, we underestimate our readership and did this knowing that our figures would be eventually audited.

“Other papers claim a higher pass on rate than we do. If you read some advertising features in some other papers, they bear no relation to the pass on rate. One feature in a rival claimed something like 50,000 plus readers. That would mean a pass on rate far in excess of what can be justified by reference to industry standard practice and would mean they were selling almost twice as many papers as they actually do.

“I am pleased that, subject to a very minor change that we have agreed pending the end of year audit, the ASA have determined the complaint to be groundless and will take no further action.

“It makes you wonder just how desperate multinational newspaper groups are if, rather than give their advertising customers a positive message about themselves, they allow the outsiders they parachute in to run their supposedly “local” brands to attack competitors.”

Mr Sinclair concluded: “I think what has happened shows the difference between something produced by a soulless corporation without roots in the community and a real local newspaper concentrating on real local issues.”

Sales Director Tim Evans added: “We sell our product positively. It’s a pity that some others lack the confidence and ability to do the same with their own.”

Speaking yesterday (Aug 11) Mr. Sinclair said: “It will be pretty simple to provide the figures to the ASA that show that The Herald going from strength to strength. As a business we commit considerable resources to our online content and delivery, including internet radio and online video; something which we think is vitally important – our local competitors do not. Moving with the times rather than complaining to the ASA would be the best move for the Western Telegraph.”

Websites belonging to The Herald were inaccessible for some customers last week due to high demand. Increased capacity has now been added to the system to allow more simultaneous users online.