At the station on top of the honour box from which commuters purchase The Age was a flyer promoting home delivery. At 57 cents a day it’s a questionable move for the newsagent promoting the offer – unless he/she is converting retail customers from another newsagency to their delivery business. To move a regular customer from retail to home delivery in the same newsagency does not make sense.
I understand the importance of home delivery subscription to the publishers.
For newsagents, the economics are quite different: there is no revenue from advertising. Indeed, from a home delivery perspective newsagents have no control over pricing, little control over costs and no real opportunity for upsell. Indeed, through some newspaper publishers, newsagents moving customers from retail to home delivery give up GP for the privilege of home delivery – yet their cost base is higher.
Given the restructuring and consolidation currently play in the home delivery space I’d expect more newsagents to resist promotions such as The Age 57 cents a day offer.