Earlier this week it was the turn of the Gold Coast Bulletin to pitch the $1.00 a day home delivery offer on to the masthead of the newspaper they have retailers selling in-store for $1.70. They take a product they claim is worth $1.70, add expensive personal home delivery and discount it by 41%. The discount is at a level that sounds too good to be true.
Desperate times I guess…
I get that subscriptions play a vital role in the newspaper revenue model. However, why they are not 100% focussed on digital only subscriptions is the surprise, as that is the future for news delivery. I think they could do that pitch without this apparent trashing of the over the counter newspaper purchase.
News Corp. will do what it sees as appropriate for its business. Their intensifying of home delivery discounting should get retail newsagents thinking carefully about the role of newspapers in their businesses. I know of newsagents who have quit the category without detriment.
Yes it is deperate times for the distribution of the printed copy it particulary effects those newsagents whose delivery income subsidises their shop trade. Once they lose the distribution as could happen with the proposed “new Secondary Distribution Model called the “project” currently being examined in NSW, they will lose everthing.
it is already affecting newsagents in my area as it is one of the major areas selected
Let’s hope that some good will prevail.
Jason I have made that exact point many times. News em doing what I would do if I were them and, yes, we have to reduce the cost of papers on our businesses and run businesses to survive without papers. However, I am not disrespecting News they way they do retail newsagents.
BTW, what I write here is suggestions / advice. Not mandatory. Newsagents should do what is right for their situation.
Jason my post is about disrespect for retail newsagents saying on product we sell – don’t buy it here any more. That’s disrespectful.
In one of my shops, 70% of the newspaper customers are daily paper shoppers. The publisher wants to take them from us. Which, of course, is their right. It’s also my right to cut it off early.