The Age has announced that from July 18, interstate editions will no longer be supplied with the classified advertising inserts: Domain, Drive and My Career. They say that this decision has been taken because “most interstate consumers don’t need or use those sections”. Newsagents I have spoken with say that half their customers want these sections. The Q&A issued by The Age indicates that they will not reverse this decision. Click here for a copy.
My custmers will be unhappy that the Drive section is to be cut. No doubt that will have a significant effect on sales.
I wonder if we’ll still have to charge the newly hiked four bucks for it?
My customer will cancel now as this is all he wanted.
The customers that buy this in NSW are looking for jobs, cars and real estate in Vic. Some of my customers either come from Vic or are contemplating a move there. What is gained by taking it out? Surely it can’t be weight!
Someone at the Age seems obsessed with saving money by finding slower methods of distribution and pulling sections out of interstate newspapers. Alternatively, they could just add 10 or 15c more to the cover price. Nobody cares. I’ve had plenty of complaints about distribution delays and missing sections from interstate fairfax publications over the years… no one’s ever complained about the price. If they want it, they buy it…. $3, $4, $4.80, $5.60…. It’s only when papers get above $10 that eyebrows are raised – internationals at $25, etc.
Interesting that the connect header states 15/07/09 SATURDAY MELBOURNE AGE CLASSIFIEDS. Please see attached circular regarding the removal of the classified sections of the Saturday Melbourne Age in QLD copies.” Yet the circular states interstate. I guess we will know tomorrow which was right. Except for the odd tourist I would expect that the only people who wanted The Age or any Interstate paper would be those looking for the classifieds as the news is available the day before the Interstate’s arrive in the local state papers.