A new quality free newspaper for an up-and-coming M4 corridor town is being launched today.
Regional publisher Trinity Mirror is launching the Bracknell Times as a “upgrade” on existing free title the Bracknell Forest Standard, which is being discontinued.
Unlike its predecessor the new title will not be delivered door-to-door but will be available for free pick-up from newsagents, supermarkets, petrol stations and public buildings across the area.
The new title will have an initial print run of more than 8,000. The rival paper, the Romanes Group-owned Bracknell News, has a paid-for circulation of 3,265.
Today's launch edition of the Bracknell Times
Andy Murrill, editorial director for Trinity Mirror’s local newspapers in Berkshire, announced the move in a story on companion website getreading.
He wrote: “As the Bracknell regeneration begins to revolutionise our town, readers will also get an upgraded local newspaper that best reflects the aspirations of our blossoming borough.
“As Bracknell town centre goes through such momentous changes we believe there has never been a bigger role to be played by your local newspaper.
“The Times will keep you up to speed with all the latest developments and our market-leading website www.getbracknell.co.uk will continue to bring you live, breaking news and local debate.”
Andy said some popular features of the old paper would be retained including letters, the Q&A, the local opinion panel, Pet of the Week and the Back in the Day nostalgia column.
In addition there will be more pages overall, more community news, a bigger entertainment and what’s on section, more sports pages and more puzzles
The Times will be the sister paper to the award-winning Wokingham Times which was commended in the UK Weekly Newspaper of the Year category at the 2013 Newspaper Awards.
The Bracknell Forest Standard which had a distribution of 27,488 in February 2013, the last time its figures were audited.
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It will be there as long as the ads are. Call that a fee press?
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Way to go Trinity, so you’ve killed a product that reached *36,000 adults every week across the Bracknell Forest Council area and replaced it with one that reaches 8,000. Let’s get this right that’s a 77.77% decrease in readership and this is described as an ‘upgrade’.
Source: *Jicreg 1st May 2013 – RPC applied to pick up copies is 1.
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Preach the Reach evidently fails to appreciate the difference between circulation and readership.
Readership is usually about two and a half to three times the circulation figure.
Hence a circulation of 8,000 translates as roughly 24,000 readers.
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Babble, you really should check your facts before making such silly statements. The “new” Trinity product is a free pick up publication and its distribution is unaudited. As such even TM themselves in their marketing material are only claiming 8k readers – 1 per copy which is standard for free pick-ups. Paid newspapers like the Bracknell News have around 2.5 readers per copy while free door-to-door distribution newspapers generally have around 1.5 RPC. TM now have a readership in Bracknell of 8k. Berkshire Media Group which owns the Bracknell News and the free Bracknell Midweek has a total readership of 64k of which 37k is in Bracknell – if i was an advertsier I wonder which publisher I would choose. TM can mislead advertisers all they want, this is purely about costs savings
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From the intro, I am wondering is it quality and free, or quality free?
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