Tindle Newspapers is claiming that sales of its flagship weekly the South London Press have risen by 35pc since its relaunch as a series of hyperlocal titles.
The seven seven separate hyperlocal titles were launched earlier this month in key areas of the existing SLP patch.
The so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’ are now circulating in Streatham, Brixton, Wimbledon, Wandsworth, Dulwich, Deptford & New Cross and Forest Hill & Sydenham.
Tindle has now published sales figures for five of the seven areas, with sales increases ranging from 69pc to 28pc.
The company said that in the first week, net copy sales for the new paid-for editions compared to the previous week’s sales for the SLP were as follows:
Forest Hill & Sydenham +69pc
Deptford & New Cross +30pc
Dulwich +28pc
Streatham +34pc
Brixton +28pc
Tindle said that overall the net number of copies of all editions of South London Press showed a 35pc increase over the previous week despite it being the Jubilee Bank Holiday week and school half term.
Managing director Peter Edwards said: “Previously, holidays of this nature have resulted in a sales decline of anything up to 25pc compared to the previous week, so to go 35pc in the opposite direction is quite a remarkable achievement.”
“This is a result that once again justifies Sir Ray Tindle’s belief in the hyperlocal newspaper publishing model.”
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*cough* Jubilee Week *cough*.
What are sales like for the week after guys?
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Judicious launch date with lots of pics of street parties to whack a few sales on to its normal run. Wonder what it’ll be like when the hyperlocals are running hyperlocal fornt pages about missing cats.
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Something to rejoice about…seems if more papers took hyerlocal route there’d be more of a future for good ole newsprint and I’d have more of a chance of getting off the benefits nightmare..given the areas covered its going to be more sex, drugs and RnR than missing moggies and even when I was biggish fish in small pond of weeklies covering ‘leafy’ Surrey and Middlesex still managed to mix the punchy, not to mention some damn fine campaiging stuff, with townswomens’ guild element..shame many provisional dailies with staff numbers decimated don’t have the time for gritty investigative journalism anymore and reporters having to spend so much time just rehashing press releases to fill holes..
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Blimey, guys! I mean, I understand the reason for critical comments on the constant slash and burn stories, but does anything even slightly positive have to be met with such cynicism?
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Come on Steve, wise up.
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Obviously great news that the new hyperlocals seem popular (thought they might be) but the question is surely that after losing so many staff from the editorial team, will the remaining few be able to keep up the momentum to produce these titles every week?
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Well done, Peter. Well done, Sir Ray. Ignore the usual HTFP ingrates and whingers and celebrate your achievement.
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Steve,
My point here is that I imagine every local paper achieved sale increases during Jubilee week not dissimilar to these figures.
Having seen these editions they are not hyperlocal editions just slip 1-3 of the main paper.
Let’s see if sales are sustained when the public realise they are not getting what was originally promised.
If he does I will shower the old genius with lavish praise on his foresight and acumen.
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I think Steve Dyson’s right to criticise some of the negative comments on this story.
But, the reality is that hyperlocal papers are simply not what is being produced. “hmmmm” comments that the papers slip P1-3 of the main paper, but that doesn’t convey just how little local content there is in the paper.
Let’s look at the first edition of the “Streatham & South London Press” (and bear in mind that the paper’s offices are actually in Streatham edition). Apart from the front page pics of a Streatham jubilee street party, there is a story ofsomeone appearing on stage who used to go to school in Streatham, but he doesn’t live in the town; there’s a fund-raising event for a Streatham charity, but that’s taking place in central London; there’s a report of a violent attack on Streatham High Road, but the victim isn’t named.
Apart from a letter from a Streatham resident, that’s it: the only other time the word Streatham appears in the paper is on the paper’s masthead and in the publisher’s address.
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In my previous comment, I should have said “excluding the sports pages”, which I never look at
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