RNRF - About the RNRF
The Regional Newspaper Research Committee was resurrected in about 1979 when Jim Penny of the now defunct Regional Newspaper Advertising Bureau (RNAB), invited a number of researchers in the regional press to a meeting. The RNAB Research Committee was formed as a result of that meeting. Before 1979, there had been various research committees representing the interests of the regional press.
When RNAB merged with the Newspaper Society, the RNAB Research Committee decided to become independent of any organisation partly in order to be in a better position to provide an independent view and partly because the Newspaper Society already had a Research Committee though its brief was quite different to that of the RNAB Research Committee. The RNRF was formed.
Meetings take place quarterly in London and at newspaper centres around the Country.
For the part 13 years, the RNRF has organised a highly successful one day Seminar, “Insight” which covers a wide range of topics relevant to the regional press particularly from the point of view of researchers. The target audience normally comprises editorial, marketing, circulation, advertising, research and promotion personnel from newspapers as well as market research agencies and others with an interest in the regional press such as consultants.
In 2003, the RNRF decided to come under the wing of the Newspaper Society. The consolidation of the regional newspaper industry, the reduction in the number of researchers within newspaper groups and the expansion of the briefs of researchers, indicated that it was no longer viable to have a group of researchers deliberating purely research matters.
