My local Fitness First gym has just installed a display unit offering free copies of the Herald Sun newspaper. It has replaced a unit which offered free copies of The Age which had been in place in the same location for the last four months.
It seems to me that there has been a significant increase in availability of free newspapers: at gyms, sporting events, coffee shops, outdoor events and even supermarkets.
Until recently I thought that free newspapers would be the local ‘community’ newspaper and commuter newspapers like mX, a slim and fluffy ‘news’ paper which is distributed in several Australian capital cities Monday through Friday. What we now regularly see goes beyond the mX model. More and more we are seeing free copies of the main game, the regular newspaper available which shoppers used to pay for. Plus we are seeing weekend paid for newspaper, free.
While publishers may say that these giveaways are designed to promote the titles through sampling, I don’t see this. A four month long sample of The Age at Fitness First gyms is a long sample.
I am concerned that the publishers are inching closer to a completely free model. If this is not the case then why are they educating shoppers to not pay for their newspaper? Why are they engaging in campaigns which invite shoppers to not get their daily newspaper from their newsagency?
Don’t you see Mark that they envisage the total collapse of small business eg newsagencies as a viable business model, but they still need their product out there to churn the advertising? In the view of Newspaper companies, we are all dead.No-one else will sign up for what we did in the past (ie deliver) so they HAVE to move this way.
Has any one else complete the News Ltd survey for sub agents? Some interesting questions asked.
As for free papers…could we hit the stage where space is purchased from us and management of stock is not neccessary? From a subagent point of view it is probably as good as the current deal we get.