The biggest challenge facing many grassroots publishers is access to national or even provincial advertising.

Small, rural, and township publishers seldom have national representation, and without it they simply cannot win the necessary ‘face time’ to convince major media buyers or media strategists to use their titles. Grassroots publishers also often don’t have the scales of economy or national networks of newspapers offered by their ‘big media’ competitors.

AIP, in partnership with the Media Development & Diversity Agency (MDDA), have therefore launched South Africa's first focused research into ways for the grassroots media to improve its share of the national advertising pie.

The Grassroots Advertising Procurement (GAP) initiative will investigate practical and cost-effective solutions to the most common problems faced by smaller publishers. This includes surveying perceptions of the problems associated with grassroots newspapers amongst major advertising executives, media strategies, campaign planners, and various advertising procurement agencies.

The research, which is being managed by veteran media consultant Brenda Wortley, will also test perceptions amongst government advertisers, including parastatals, and promotion agencies.

Wortley will evaluate what the best strategies and/or mechanisms are for overcoming the hurdles faced by small publishers. These include the possible creation of ‘syndicates’ of grassroots publishers, who are able to match the deals offered by large publishing groups by making joint pitches for advertising accounts or offering 'package' discounts.

Other strategies under evaluation include ways to give smaller publishers the same kinds of credible market and audience research that bigger competitors use to clinch advertising deals, improved newspaper marketing toolkits, and .

GAP will also explore the potential for small publishers to use geomapping tools to counter detailed market research such as ROOTS or COMPASS used by the larger publishing companies. Geomapping would allow small publishers to graphically plot their circulation and reader demographics onto interactive electronic maps that already mark the location of advertisers such as retailers and dealerships.

Wortley will deliver a detailed report outlining the major problems affecting grassroots access to advertising, and will then make technical recommendations on how the problems can best be solved. She will also suggest broader structural mechanisms and interventions for consideration by bodies such as AIP, MDDA, government regulators, and other media development stakeholders.

GAP is being jointly funded by the MDDA and Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa (NiZA).