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Mass Media

Volume 488: debated on Tuesday 3 March 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the cost of his Department’s contracts with press monitoring services was in each of the last five years. (251222)

The Department for International Development’s (DFID) press office has three types of contracts for coverage monitoring. Press cuts are provided by EDS (Electronic Distribution Service), broadcast coverage by the MMU (Media Monitoring Unit) and online coverage by Meltwater. The latter is relatively a new service from 2006. Details of DFID spend on press monitoring is displayed in the following table:

Financial year

Total cost (£)

2004-05

70,310.85

2005-06

120,257.07

2006-07

138,378

2007-08

202,694

2008-09 (to date)

103,284