Brighton-based daily The Argus has become the second Newsquest-owned title to unveil a sharp increase in cover price to cover the cost of lost advertising.
Yesterday HTFP revealed that the weekly Oxford Times is to go up in price from 85p to £1.30 as part of a relaunch to mark its 150th anniversary.
A similar strategy has now been unveiled by Argus editor Michael Beard in an email to staff which has been seen by HoldtheFrontPage.
It is to increase its Monday-Friday cover price from 45p to 65p from Monday, while its Saturday edition will rise from 60p to 85p.
The change will also be accompanied by a raft of changes including up to 50 pages of extra pagination per week.
They include a new 12-page Monday sports supplement, a dedicated charities page, more business pages and a new feature called In Your Street looking in depth at a local community.
Other changes will see two pages of letters three times a week and a new eight-page Youth in Action supplement to be carried on Wednesdays.
The Saturday paper will see a four-page puzzle pull-out as well as an in-depth interview with a prominent figure in the week’s news.
Like the changes being introduced by the Oxford Times, the relaunch follows a series of focus groups or ‘reader panels’ held during the summer.
In his email, Michael said: “Much has been written and spoken about the decline of local newspapers in terms of circulation. The thing that struck me and the other staff who attended the panels was the loyalty people felt for the paper and also how important it was to their lives.”
He went on: “Through the week we expect overall pagination to increase by more than 50 pages. It is obvious that this comes at a cost.
“With some advertising sectors suffering in the recession, if we are to maintain our standards for high quality and comprehensive coverage then we must charge a fair price.”
The Argus saw a 10.2pc decline in circulation in the period January to June 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.
According to last week’s ABC figures its average daily sale now stands at 22,399.
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The figures are in freefall. I’ll tell you what we’ll do, we’ll put the price up by 45% to reward our remaining readers for their loyalty. Genius.
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It sounds like the kiss of death for the Argus being a daily paper. Chances are it will be a weekly within five years.
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It must be time for the retired community in Brighton to all purchase a lap-top.Far more economical than purchasing the Argus on a daily basis and a great deal more informative.
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It’s hard to imagine this farce in any other industry.
So, customers, we’re going to slash staff, reduce our relevance, give you less (in this case pages) … and put the price up.
Can you imagine Tesco doing this. Right, this loaf of bread, it’s going to taste like cardboard, we’ll remove 10 slices and add 20p.
Papers should be doing two things:
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I think I’ll choose not to spend £213 a year on the Argus, save up for a couple of years and buy an i-pad. Then I’ll get it all for free.
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65p for a local daily? This four-page quiz must be something special. There’s a four word phrase which sums this up for me (along with much of the newspaper industry in general) – pi**ing in the wind.
Why don’t they just go weekly now & use the website to cover breaking news? Anyone in their right mind can see that it’s inevitable.
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At last – proof that reality and regional press economics have never been particularly conducive bedfellows. First you cut and cut until your paper resembles yesterday’s chip-shop wrappings, losing over 10 per cent of your readership in the process; then you expect the dwindling band of demented souls who have remained loyal to your product to stump up 45 per cent extra – and for what?
Two pages of letters three times a week ( the readers will be providing that content, of course}, a dedicated charities page and a throwback to the dark ages – Your Street. Can’t wait for the next ABCs.
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Wow. That’ll work.
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What ridiculous comments! The weekly bill, if you buy the Argus every day including Saturday, is going up by £1.25 a week. That’s less than the price of a half down the pub, half a latte at Starbucks or, indeed, God forbid, about a quarter of a Big Mac meal at McDonald’s. Hardly worth getting excited about, is it? And if the extra money means the paper’s future is brighter than at present, then good on ’em. People have to learn that they can’t have quality product for nothing – and, frankly, I’d rather pay extra for a decent Argus than have to rely on an underfunded, badly written, “hi tech” alternative.
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These price rises are insane. My guess is that the only strategy at work here is one that will hasten the death of a once thriving daily paper and eventually provide a platform to bring it back to life as some kind of weekly. Watch this space!
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Five years, Onlooker? Five minutes more like.
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JP is doing the same. The logic is you can’t arrest falling circulations, so rip off the loyal readers you do have. And where does all the extra pagination come from? That’s right, from the dwindling number of surviving editorial staff, who will now be worked even harder. In the three years I’ve read the Argus, it’s gotten so much worse. Beyond a usually decent splash it is increasingly thin on news. And it feels very light and cheap-looking. It’s a shame because there are some good journalists there.
Five years until it’s a weekly? I’d be surprised if it doesn’t go weekly within a year.
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‘…up to 50 pages of extra pagination per week.’ ???????? Of what?
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too little – too late – game over!
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Nearly fell off my chair when I read this. Laugh? I nearly bought me own beer. Strange paper, the Argus. I spent some time working there – blimey, it was like Shaun of the Dead. Morale was/is lower than a viper’s belly. And, AND! having the temerity to charge MORE for a ‘paper when the standard of its journalism is decreasing, well, you can knock me down with a feather boa. Ever read the website? Deary me…Little wonder they’re always advertising for staff. Mind you, after this price increase, there won’t be any staff left at all. So long, Argus. I would say it was nice knowing you, but…..
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The Argus…still a good paper that covers big news stories and the football club really well. Now trying to make the economic model work. Good luck to ’em.
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This isn’t “strategic pricing policy”, it’s panic.
You can’t suddenly increase the price of goods by 45% and expect paying customers to shrug their shoulders and stump up.
Why does no one at Newsquest seem to grasp this basic economic reality?
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Don’t knock “Your Street” & in-depth interviews with figures in the news. They’re only dark ages because the dark ages was when newspapers had enough staff to do them. Readers loved them, you know. Proper local news, they were.
However, this begs the question: if they’re going to do all this properly, and increase reader value, does that mean they are going to increase the number of writing jobs (or at least pay more real freelances)? No, thought not. So it’ll either be amateur nonsense or some poor hack will have to work even longer hours.
And even if “Your Street” or the in-depth stuff with the person in the news is formulaic – a questionnaire, say, or a “life in the day”-type form – some poor sap is going to have to put in a heck of a lot of time getting said questionnaires filled. In the past we used trainees or minimum-wage editorial assistants for that….oh.
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I think the criticism of The Argus is a bit harsh. It does a decent job with the resources it has (which are probably minimal). However, it’s really going to have to improve to justify the price rise. No doubt there won’t be any extra staff to help with this.
It also isn’t helped by looking like it was designed in the dark ages. And as for the look of the website…
Good luck to those people having to graft all hours to get it out.
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I don’t know the Argus but I guess it has a decent staff who will not be helped by such a price hike. My opinion for what it is worth is that paid for newspapers are pricing themselves out of the market. I’d like to bet that papers slashing their cover price see increased circulations, but that is not how the bean counters see it. My local Newsquest weekly is now a shadow of its former self, having sold its town centre office, got rid of most of a very professional and dedicated staff and priced at 55p for a slimmed-down publication of little interest. No wonder I have just cancelled my subscription.
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I think this star fell from from 115,000 a day to maybe just over 20,000. Once a superb paper but now a dull weekly that happens to come out every day. Rivals like JP have nil to crow about; about to slash sales with silly price hikes and their equally daft and confusing new design.
Slash and burn is the new mantra for desperate management everywhere.
Good luck hacks I left behind.
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I suppose increasing the cover price is an easy way for publishers to claw back some revenue, but the danger is you alienate your remaining readers.
It’s ok saying well it amounts to just a small increase, but many newspaper readers are elderly and on low incomes.
I’m a journalist in my 30s and I would balk at paying £1.30 for a weekly newspaper.
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The Argus has suffered because of another newspaper that opened in 2011 in Brighton. It’s called ‘Love Brighton’ and is modern and more appealing to many people. http://www.lovebrightonnews.co.uk
It’s a weekly and has just doubled its circulation. It’s the sister paper of Chichester Herald. Both seem to be booming as weekly’s which makes sense in my opinion
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The Argus used to be a training ground for the nationals,there a very few jobs going up in town these days any trainee journo starting out in newspapers in todays climate will be wondering what the hell they got themselves into.At the Argus morale is at rock bottom,we are treated like slaves,the editor knows very few of his staffs names,long hours,very poor pay and no thanks.I am getting out and changing my career,stacking shelves in any supermarket will pay more than I am on here.
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