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City freesheet to close as publisher blames ‘rising costs’

Coventry-TimesRising costs have been blamed for the closure of a weekly freesheet by a regional publisher.

Trinity Mirror has announced The Coventry Times, which serves as a sister title to paid-for daily the Coventry Telegraph, will cease publication on 20 April.

The Times is currently produced by Telegraph staff, and there will be no changes to roles or job losses as a result of the closure.

The move was revealed in an email, seen by HTFP, which was sent to staff by Craig Willetts, newspaper sales manager at Trinity Mirror Midlands.

The latest ABC Figures, released in February, showed an 80.6pc year-on-year drop in the Times’s circulation, which stood at 11,870.

In February Trinity Mirror announced paid-for weekly the Crosby Herald and freesheet the Formby Times would close at the end of March.

Last week the company also replaced seven titles in the Greater Manchester area (the Stockport Times, Wilmslow Express and the Advertiser series in Tameside, Salford, Oldham and Trafford) with a new freesheet called the Manchester Weekly News.

A Trinity Mirror spokesperson said: “Following a review of our free distribution newspaper the Coventry Times, the decision has been taken to cease publication.

“The Times has served the company well over many years, as a weekly complement to our daily Coventry Telegraph, but the title has been increasingly impacted by the rising costs of free distribution.

“At the same time, the Telegraph’s digital audience has grown exponentially, and we believe advertisers and readers are now better served in print and online than ever before.

“The Coventry Telegraph’s audited daily print sales in January were 21,872, with unique daily browsers across desktop, mobile and apps standing at 78,687.”

The Times began life as the Coventry Citizen in 1982, relaunching under its present title in 2007.

13 comments

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  • April 8, 2015 at 8:28 am
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    I do wish JP would help save the planet and close down some of their awful free papers and invest staff and money into their ailing paid-fors.
    The freebies are truly pathetic as regards journalism and interest and my friends tell me their copies go straight in the bin. What a waste.

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  • April 8, 2015 at 9:07 am
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    The Coventry Times used to be a really good paper. One of the best freesheets in the country, and a launch pad for the careers of some fine young journalists (when it actually had staff).
    It’s a shame, but these are the times we live in. I hope now that the staff are able to concentrate on improving the Coventry Telegraph.

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  • April 8, 2015 at 11:07 am
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    ‘The Times has served the company well over many years’?

    Correct me if I’ve got it wrong, but isn’t a newspaper supposed to serve its readers?

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  • April 8, 2015 at 11:18 am
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    The ironic thing is that one day all daily paid-for titles will probably be free – like the Metro – to guarantee circulation in order to maintain a reasonable rate on ads.
    Many one-time great free papers are now the shadow of what they once were through lack of investment and a belief that the reader doesn’t count, only the advertiser. Pack ’em full of ads, squeeze the editorial, cut the pagination and everything will be OK. Sadly, not….

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  • April 8, 2015 at 11:50 am
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    Echo. You sum up everything that is wrong in today’s news industry. No longer a service to public, just to shareholders. It shows too!

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  • April 8, 2015 at 12:48 pm
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    Ah, sad times. My first senior appointment was on the old Citizen – we had good fun with a great team.

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  • April 8, 2015 at 2:42 pm
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    The last organisation to do as much damage to Coventry used Heinkel bombers.

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  • April 8, 2015 at 2:54 pm
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    Rising cost or lowering of income from web? I think we know.

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  • April 8, 2015 at 4:43 pm
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    Some years ago when a freesheet was added to our portfolio / workload, we were told existing staff would have to produce it. When it closed, we were told that, sadly, one senior staff position would have to go, too. So credit to Trinity Mirror for not throwing a job loss into this deal.

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  • April 8, 2015 at 5:11 pm
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    It is no coincidence that former Coventry Telegraph political editor Les Reid is now the top reporter on the rival free weekly.
    The evidence clearly shows his award-winning work is attracting big advertisers to the Coventry Observer.

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  • April 8, 2015 at 5:31 pm
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    My girf friend says her local and pitiful free paper is used to puff the paid for. Fair enough, but it gets delivered after the paid-for comes out!
    Couldn’t make it up.

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  • April 9, 2015 at 9:31 am
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    If you are going to publish a newspaper then don’t you have an obligation to publish for the community you serve the best possible paper you can given the resources available to you. If that is not possible then is it best to not have a paper than one which simply isn’t good enough.
    Via a relative I recently saw copies of the Market Rasen Mail and Horncastle News. Both should and could be great local papers. Instead they are bereft of news – especially sport – but are crammed full of property and motors – presumably only because of highly attractive ad rates.
    If local newspapers are to not on,y survive but thrive they need to make every publication something to be proud of. Perhaps the big boys need to adapt the mindset of the micro publisher and perhaps the micro publishers need to see the opportunity the big boys are creating for them. Think of beer.

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  • April 9, 2015 at 4:31 pm
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    Trevor, to put it succinctly, the problem is that all the men (and women) of quality have been laid off a long time ago in journalism, all that’s left now are knifemen.

    Most of the top brass at my old firm (TM regional) are there simply because the person in front of them got laid off, it’s like some kind of pirate ship that never sails anywhere, where the crew occasionally get told their former captain has been forced to walk the plank and someone knew is in charge.

    To make matters worse, these people were usually complicit (or had some knowledge) of what was going to happen to their colleagues before hand. I’ve seen one man get laid off, then the person who laid him off get laid off, finally that person got laid off by someone else – it’d be comedy if it wasn’t people’s lives.

    The problem is that all the people left simply don’t care, they’re just trying to make it to retirement or wait until they’re pushed so they can collect a pay off – buy any of them a pint and they’ll admit it openly.

    YOu simply can’t run an organisation like that, all it leads to is double speak, people saying they’re doing something with care and quality, when they know, and you know, with a nod and a wink, that you’re both talking absolute b*llocks.

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