In 2005 Rupert Murdoch said of DVD giveaways
:”People grab (the newspaper), tear the DVD off and throw away the paper. They’ve got to learn. That’s got to stop.”
According to Phillip Stone, writing at follow the media, last year News International cut back on the DVDs and newspaper sales fell by 500,000. Newspapers which did not cut back on DVDs did not report similar falls.
So, even though newsagents are frustrated with the DVDs – especially when scale out is insufficient – they are clearly a necessary evil.
The same article also has good coverage of the impact of free daily newspapers on paid for sales.