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Top-selling regional daily to go part-free

Britain’s biggest-selling regional title is set to experiment with the part paid-for, part-free model of newspaper publishing by creating a free edition in one of its outlying districts.

From next month, the Stafford edition of the Express and Star is to be delivered free to homes and business in the mid-Staffordshire area on Wednesdays only, while remaining paid-for the other five days.

The move will coincide with the end of the Stafford and Stone Chronicle, a weekly free title covering the two towns, printed on Wednesday afternoons and available from Thursday mornings.

Its axing follows the centralisation of all Chronicle Series reporters and sub-editors at the Wolverhampton HQ 12 months ago.

Stafford is the most northerly edition in the Express and Star patch and underwent a successful relaunch in June 2005.

No-one from Express and Star management has so far made any official comment on the plans, but some journalists have expressed unease about the idea.

One Wolverhampton staffer told HTFP: “There are serious doubts as to whether this can actually be delivered, given that they have reduced staffing in the Staffordshire offices, and we now have only one reporter based in Stafford.”

The journalist said the paper had already begun drafting in reporters from the neighbouring Cannock office to help out with the Stafford edition, although they also have their own edition to produce.

The Express and Star sold an average of 130,216 copies a day in the months between July and December last year according to the most recent ABC figures.

Only the Manchester Evening News has a bigger circulation among regional papers, but a significant part of its its 153,724 circulation is down to its adoption of the part-free model.

Comments

Michael (07/05/2009 10:50:23)
Looks like Yellow Advertiser founder Ian Fletcher was right after all when he famously said, I have seen teh future, and it is free.

cadmus (07/05/2009 11:44:47)
Unhappy coincidence that this follows Greenslade’s prophecy yesterday on the demise of regional dailies .. or …

Alan Graham (07/05/2009 18:12:14)
This is a strategic move ahead of the forthcoming new fangled interweb thingy

wake up call (13/05/2009 16:04:38)
Atleast this is a newspaper taking action to ensure a long term future! Perhaps if some of the dinasaurs in this industry could see that we need to change, they wouldn’t be helping contribute to their own extinction!