The National Post may have made a heavy impression on the consciousness of its competitors but, judging by the paper’s sparse ad lineage, its impression upon advertisers and media buyers is relatively light.

The media buyers that have been recommending the Post have been doing so based solely on their faith in the product. They are hoping to be proven right when the hard numbers – the June release of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and the NADbank survey in late September – hit the streets.

One of the Post’s early supporters, Hugh Dow, president of Initiative Media, says he expects the Post’s preliminary circulation statement of 272,778 per day to be substantiated by ABC.

‘We are obviously anxiously waiting both the circulation and readership numbers,’ says Dow. ‘There comes a point when the numbers must be there, but we generally like to get involved and take advantage of opportunities and the Post is an opportunity as far as we can see.’

Bruce Baumann, vice-president, media director of Ammirati Puris Lintas, says that while the ABC numbers are important, it’s really the NADbank survey – which defines the reading and product consumption habits of each paper’s readers – that will carry the most weight. Even so, he says the numbers may be distorted given the heavy marketing promotions conducted by all the major dailies.

‘How many free copies are flying around out there?’ asks Baumann, adding that a true picture of the competitive situation between the papers may not emerge for a few years.

Doug Checkeris, managing partner at Media Buying Services, says the Post has delivered what it promised, both on the circulation and editorial sides of the equation. He says the ABC statement will give the Post credibility but adds he’s more interested in what kind of people are selecting the paper and what makes them different from those who read The Globe and Mail.

Don Babick, president of Southam and publisher of the National Post, says he’s pleased with the paper’s performance so far, saying it’s ahead of its circulation projections and right where it expected to be with ad sales.

Although the paper doesn’t yet have the breadth of advertisers he’d like to see, Babick says he’s pleased that advertisers such as Compaq and IBM, all the major banks, most of the mutual fund companies, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota and Nissan are gracing the pages of the Post.

Babick says the goal is a 70% editorial to 30% advertising ratio, a bit higher than the 60/40 industry standard.

Ron Clark, senior vice-president of sales and marketing, says indications from advertisers are that the fall should be pretty strong for the Post but he’s not relying solely on ABC and NADbank to provide a picture of the paper’s readership base.

Clark says the Post has conducted dozens of focus group sessions and more than one major newspaper readership tracking study. The research, he says, indicates a growing number of consumers, in Toronto especially, are reading more than one newspaper per day.

‘I think with the aggressive marketing activity conducted by all the Toronto papers, we may have increased primary readership demand,’ he says.