The Age today came with a free calendar by the brilliant cartoonist Michael Leunig. The calendar is good quality and packages Leunig’s talents. It’s a good connect with the newspaper because of his years working with them. The Age put in extra effort chasing sales by providing a spruiker for our retail outlets for four hours. They provided spruikers for other newsagents as well. This practical support is welcome and demonstrates a level of engagement with newsagents which I appreciate.
The Herald Sun today came with a DVD of bits from the Kath and Kim TV show. I say bits because that’s what’s on the DVD. Customers were more interested in this than the Leunig calendar and that’s disappointing because the calendar is more valuable. Nevertheless, the DVD is generating the sales kick they would have hoped for.
Both the calendar and DVD are good offerings designed to boost newspaper sales. In a two paper town I wonder about the value of such head t head competition. One will always detract from the other. I appreciate publishers cannot work together on promotions yet I am certain they would be aware of each others plans.