Northcliffe Media is claiming another success for its strategy of turning daily newspapers to weeklies after Exeter’s Express & Echo posted a 46pc sales rise.
In its first audited sale figure since converting to weekly in September, the Devon title achieved a new weekly circulation figure of 24,255.
This compares with an average daily sale of 16,586 according to the last set of ABC figures published in August.
Its cumulative weekly sale as a six-day-a-week title was in the region of 100,000.
Managing director Andrew Blair said “This change has been really well received by both readers and community leaders. Our advertising customers are also enjoying the increased value that the significant increase in circulation is delivering.
“The new weekly format enables the Express & Echo to look forward with renewed confidence in serving the needs of Exeter and we are genuinely excited by that prospect.”
Northcliffe group managing director Steve Auckland added: “This is further evidence that our daily to weekly strategy was the right decision to improve the performance of Northcliffe Media.
“Editor Marc Astley and his team have done a great job in bringing about such a positive change that has been recognised by readers, advertisers and the community.”
The Express and Echo was the third Northcliffe daily to go weekly this summer, following the Torquay Herald Express and the Scunthorpe Telegraph.
Following the move, the Herald Express posted a sales increase of 49.8pc during August and September taking its average circulation from 20,372 to 30,524.
No figures for the Scunthorpe title or the Lincolnshire Echo, which has also recently converted to weekly, have so far been published.
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In real terms, it’s a 75% sales drop though isn’t it?
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Er, hang on…
100,000 a week vs 24,255 a week?
Am I missing something here?
How is a drop of nearly 80,000 sales per week a “significant increase in circulation”?
I feel I’ve stumbled into the Looking Glass world here.
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Northcliffe Spin Machine trots out the same line we’ve disputed numerous times already.
This is a major circulation slump in real terms.
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The argument about the overall number of newspapers sold misses the point.
The point, presumably, is that there is more profit to be gained (or a smaller loss to be sustained) by writing, producing, printing, distributing and selling 24,000 copies of one product than 10,000 copies of six products.
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It is a wonder that if Northcliffe – with all its spin and reinventing the wheel – could manage this fantastic increase in sales as a weekly, but not as a daily.
I wonder why?
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As others have pointed out, it’s not really comparing like with like.
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Sorry, that should obviously have been 100,000 copies.
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Would the last person to leave put the lights out?
Sales at a quarter of the total for the week when a daily. I bet the ad revenue is severely reduced while there hasn’t been a four-fold increase in cover price.
But of course it will be making a profit, thanks to all the job losses and reduced printing costs. Except the readers will realise the weekely package is poor by comparison and the ABC will plummet.
Northcliffe will tell then everyone it is not viable and they are going to sell it to Daily Mail and General Trust who will merge it with the Torquay Herald Express…..Job losses, rationalisation…yawn.
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I’m sorry Rupert Bear, but the argument about sales does not miss the point – not when the MD says there has been a circulation increase. Self-evidently, there has been no such thing.
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Blustringer. I myself cannot see why it is necessary to claim a circulation increase because, for the reasons I stated before, this angle is completely beside the point.
It is all about whether or not you are selling the product, be it something produced daily or weekly, at a profit or at a loss.
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And the other thing you are missing is you have journalists left on daily salaries, particularly the remaining senior employees.
But this report is shameless Northcliffe spin.
The 46% sales increase line is fatuous and insulting to one’s intelligence
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Hmm, not really an increase then is it?
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Aren’t people missing the point here – it’s obvious overall weekly sales would be down, there’s five less of them a week, of course they’re going to be down. It’s still interesting to know how sales are doing, and nowhere does the story actually say overall sales are up
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Everyone’s missing the point on sales ….. the majority of the 16,500 daily buyers would have bought the paper each day so technically – statistically or however you want to frame it – a sale of 24,200 is potentially an increase in the number of readers buying the product ….ofc Northcliffe are talking like muppets whittering on about circulation increase. …..
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“Lies, damned lies, and statistics”. Enough said, really!
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As previously stated, the Northcliffe spin is dodgy because it isn’t a like for like comparison.
However, it doesn’t look like a bad weekly sale to me, although there are many better selling weeklies covering far smaller patches.
And LocalBoyDoneWrong, that should be ‘five fewer’
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I agree that Northcliffe’s comments on sales are just spin but the important point is that the weekly newspaper offers advertisers a much bigger audience than when it was a daily. Given ad revenues are typically 70% of a local newspaper’s income, that makes short-, medium- and long-term commercial sense. Yes, income has been lost from the copies now not being sold but I would wager the title is now on a much stronger financial footing.
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@rupert bear’s right…
Once you take off the cost of the staff lost, the van runs (drivers/fuel etc) this will represent an increase in profits despite the across-week circulation drop…
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Nobody wants to read a daily ‘evening’ newspaper anymore – get real.
Publishing weekly is the right thing to do and many more will follow
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So what will happen now? Methinks any journalist working on a daily with a sale of less than 20,000 a day will be working on a weekly in the not-too-distant future.
What has happened at Exeter is not the first but there is every chance it will set a trend among the greedy newspaper owners.
I hope not, but time will tell
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‘time will tell’ – why do you hope other dailies won’t go weekly? If a town can’t sustain a profitable daily, surely going weekly is the sensible approach? The early evidence from Exeter and Torquay is that it’s better for both readers and advertisers. That in turn means it’s better for those who work for the publisher.
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Unfortunately the readers, THE most important part of newspaper – lest we forget – don’t give two shakes of a lamb’s wotsit about circulation figures.
That and newspaper awards mean absolutely sweet nothing to them.
Their interest is quality of content – and judging by the copies remaining unsold in WH Smiths, Sainsburys, Tescos et all around Exeter come the end of the week I would say they are not happy bunnies.
MD Andrew Blair, of course, doesn’t want to notice this.
The main grievances I hear are ‘it’s too big” and ”there’s no real news in it”. But if it keeps the suits in a job for another year then let it be so, I mean what do the readers know!
It is of course totally unreasonable to compare a previous daily figure with a weekly figure. They are two different beasts.
A fairer representation would be to compare the Echo’s figures in a year’s time, rather than sanitised ABC figures now.
Actual readership has in all probability gone up – as in my experience one person buys the paper, and then hands it round to four or five other family members/friends – but unfortunately this only equates to one sale.
However, as Northcliffe has proved in recent years it’s not really interested in newspaper sales. That’s why in the south west they either got rid of or drastically reduced to a skeleton staff their newspaper sales departments.
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It’s interesting to read about bundles of unsold copies and the complaints of readers who say there’s not enough news in the ‘new’ weekly newspaper and that it’s too big. If I was the publisher, I’d be heartened by that – newspaper sales are up yet there’s still considerable scope to improve the product!
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Ill-informed – readers wanting local relevant news stories as opposed to feature-lead articles.
That and up to date BMD’s which ain’t gonna happen on a weekly.
And then we go back to the technicality of sales being up up but not -24K over seven days or 100K over 6 days! As I wrote earlier until comparable figures from the next ABC come out the initial figure means nothing.
Still is seems Marc Astley has now fallen on his sword – or was he pushed?……..answers on a postcard to…………….
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I really wish everyone, including Northcliffe, would stop banging on about sales. Sales no longer matter, profits do. If you have a daily selling 10,000 copies but making £1m profit a year and another selling 50,000 copies but losing £1m a year, which one do you think would face redundancies and is most likely to go weekly first? Of course, the number of sales directly affects the rate cards and this extreme scenario is very unlikely, but it explains why some titles which sold more than others went weekly first. The order in which they all turn weekly will be determined by how much money can be saved in order to boost overall profits. And, having said that, even one making more profit now will be turned weekly before others if they can see a way to make bigger savings in that centre rather than elsewhere. Unfortunately, property, motors and recruitment ain’t coming back to print!
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