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Switch to weekly ‘saved our paper’ says editor

The editor of the Bath Chronicle has said his newspaper would have gone out of business had it not made the switch from daily to weekly.

In a magazine interview published online today, Sam Holliday said the change of frequency in 2007 had “saved the paper.”

Sam also claimed other editors of small regional dailies were “thinking about” making the change on the basis of the Chronicle’s success.

His comments come as Northcliffe sister title the Torquay Herald Express prepares to move to weekly publication this week, with the Scunthorpe Telegraph to follow next month.

Sam was speaking in an interview with InPublishing magazine carried out by the media pundit and HTFP blogger Steve Dyson.

Asked whether going weekly had worked for the Chronicle he replied:  “In our case, it saved the paper. We’re producing a much better product as a result. It’s well received by the community, sells more and we make more money.

“We were only making a tiny profit as a daily, and we were the smallest daily in the country.

“Had we then suffered the 10pc-plus revenue falls the recession brought, I really think we’d have been out of business. As a daily, Bath was never really in the money. Now we’re comparable with other big weekly centres.”

Since the Chronicle went weekly the only regional dailies to follow suit until now have been the Reading Post and Birmingham Post, but Sam predicts this may soon change.

“We were first and it’s only been a trickle following us to date, but this may accelerate,” he said.

“The number of people visiting to see what we’ve done is in double figures – with scores more phoning, emailing and asking for copies, so it’s definitely something people are looking at.

“Some small dailies may well survive, but it’s got to be an option for others. Every editor of a small circulation daily is thinking about it because it’s out there – we’ve done it and it’s worked.”

Speculation over the identity of the next Northcliffe title to make the switch continue to focus on the Lincolnshire Echo, whose editor, Jon Grubb, abruptly left last week to pursue “new business interests.”

The paper’s former editor Cliff Smith told BBC Lincolnshire’s breakfast programme today: “It is probably inevitable that it will go weekly”.

In an article accompanying his interview with Sam, Steve Dyson quotes one publisher as saying that 12,000 circulation is the cut-off point for running a profitable daily.

Only one standalone Engilsh daily title, the Burton Mail, currently falls below that point, but the Mail is not thought to be currently considering the weekly option.

6 comments

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  • July 18, 2011 at 12:40 pm
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    Interesting stuff. A good weekly is a great product, but a lot of good weeklies have been swallowed up and trimmed down to support the parent dailies (the old Rochdale Observer Group is my home town example). Despite the extremely sad loss of staff involved, I can understand how the product can improve and be profitable. Good planning is needed on newspapers with strong and active sports clubs to cope with the immediacy of the web compared to the infrequency of the printed product, but it can obviously be done.

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  • July 18, 2011 at 4:46 pm
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    Hmmm……”Sam also claimed other editors of small regional dailies were “thinking about” making the change on the basis of the Chronicle’s success.”

    Now as a Northcliffe (whoops, sorry I mean A&N Media) hack myself I think I can safely say that the only people thinking about changes and making the decisions are in Derry St and the last person in the loop is the editor.

    On my website (http://anmedianews.blogspot.com/) I have hedged my bets between Lincoln or Grimsby being next in the line for the chop to weekly. If pushed it would be Lincoln though.

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  • July 18, 2011 at 4:54 pm
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    It’s an interesting approach and one which has clearly worked for the Bath Chronicle. I also belive it has transsformed the fortunes of the Birmingham Post

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  • July 18, 2011 at 5:25 pm
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    The new MD, Steve Auckland, has direct charge of the four “big” centres of Leicester, Nottingham, Bristol and Hull with his sidekick, Rich Mead, taking control of the rest.

    It doesn’t need a genius to work out that Mead’s papers will be the ones going weekly.

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  • July 18, 2011 at 5:36 pm
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    Interesting tho Mike that the South Wales Evening Post in Swansea sells more papers than the Bristol Evening Post and Notts Post.

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  • July 18, 2011 at 5:56 pm
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    Northcliffe have been talking about Lincoln going weekly for years!!!
    The traditional weekly titles in Northcliffe’s stable have always been very strong titles both in terms of reach and advertising.
    In fact it was often stated that the weeklies had a much stronger community bond than any daily – there was a lot of truth in that sentiment too.
    I feel that going down the paid for weekly route is one of the few positive moves left to them. As long as they sort out the rather mediocre web sites any any associated magazines.

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