An independent newspaper will start distributing thousands of copies for free in a bid to become the biggest circulating weekly in Wales.
The Pembrokeshire Herald has announced it will be supplementing its paid-for copies with a regular free door-to-door drop of 7,000 papers to different homes and businesses each week across the county it serves.
Herald Newspapers says that the delivery of extra newspapers will bring the title’s total circulation to 13,539 copies per week, with each home receiving a free copy once every five weeks.
The company has also indicated that it will invest in additional staff to manage and co-ordinate the distribution of the newspapers, as well as recruiting an additional advertising sales executives and an additional full-time journalist.
David Garland and his son Johnny, members of the Pembrokeshire Herald delivery team
Director of sales Tim Evans said: “The print advertising market has been very competitive recently with our rivals dropping their prices quite significantly. The advantage that some of the longer established titles have over us is that they have been around forever and have had time to build their readership.
“What our business advertisers want and expect is a return on investment, with good value print advertising backed up by the numbers of copies shifted.
“We will now be able to catapult ourselves ahead of the competition and provide an opportunity for people who have not yet tried the Herald, or who have not bought it in a while to take a look at our product.
“In the weeks when they are not receiving a free copy it is hoped that we will see an uplift in paid for copies if people like what they see.”
The scheme will be introduced next month.
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I might have missed the point here but isn’t there a greater risk of those paying readers deciding they’ll wait for a free copy rather than continue to pay this worsening the situation?
I appreciate it’s a 1 in 5 week free issue drop but even so unless the content is unique and not available elsewhere it is likely to encourage buyers to rethink their purchase so is a very risky strategy to take at a time when publishers are desperate to do all they can to retain paid for copy sales.
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Except they’ve failed to mention all the staff they’ve sacked in the past few months, the ones they’ve not paid or delayed payment too, the recent court cases they’ve been at the centre of…
And where are the facts about rivals dropping prices? Especially when their own rates change like the wind?
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Catapult ourselves into the dustbin is more like it.
Giving it away for free sounds like an admission of defeat that isn’t going to impress anybody.
Employing extra staff (one full-time journalist for, say, between £15,000 to £20,000 p.a. plus the others) will only put them back financially to square one in remote West Wales with its rather limited advertising opportunities.
I’m out.
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