A regional publisher has announced across-the-board cover price increases at its paid-for regional newspapers.
Archant says the increase, which took effect this month, will represent £1.9m in extra revenues for newsagents and other retail partners, and in excess of £370,000 in extra profit.
The changes affect more than 40 of the group’s titles across East Anglia, Greater London and the West Country.
It sees the Eastern Daily Press increase its weekday cover price rise from 80p to 85p, and the Saturday edition from £1.60 to £1.70, while the East Anglian Daily Times will also see a five pence increase on weekdays to 80p and Saturday increase to£1.70.
Other examples include the Cambs Times increasing to 85p each week, and the Romford Record to £1 per week.
Initiatives to promote the “extra value” offered by Archant’s titles have accompanied the increases’ introduction, which came into effect from 2 November.
Neil Bowman, Archant’s circulation sales administration manager, revealed the increases in a letter to retailers.
In the letter, shared by the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, he said: “I hope we can work together to protect this opportunity by retaining existing readers and developing new purchasers.”
Neil said the increases would be supported by various initiatives including radio campaigns, bus media, and in-house platforms including Mustard TV, newspaper websites and free print titles.
He also promised an increase in ‘on the ground’ merchandising resource to help ensure point-of-sale display is of the “highest level.”
A spokeswoman for the company told HTFP: “Archant can confirm an increase in cover prices for a number of our titles.
“This will contribute to our continued commitment to giving our audiences better value for money. “
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“This will contribute to our continued commitment to giving our audiences better value for money.” Like the splendid Mustard TV, I presume?
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Resisting for a moment the traditional sources of Archant-bashing (investigations unit, Mustard, racist cartoons… they make it so easy) this move is so short-sighted and short-termist.
Archant aren’t the only ones but the very idea that you can offer an inferior product – and let’s not kid ourselves, Archant papers are now without doubt inferior to what they used to be – is just arrogance in the extreme.
I know died in the wool, archetypal readers – think Tilly from Trunch – who have given up buying the EDP in recent years because they feel it no longer offers anything. It’s neither a heavy-weight regional news source nor a parish pump hyperlocal trove but a pale and confused imitation of both.
All you’re doing by increasing the price is giving those readers who have stayed loyal yet another reason to reconsider their purchasing habit.
There is no vision or strategy to improve the content beyond a bit of window dressing (sorry, I said I wouldn’t mention the investigations unit, didn’t I?) and just a blind panic to articficially inflate the accounts for one more year.
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Is there really such a dearth of ideas in the boardroom that yet another price hike is the only solution? Increased cover prices serve only to drive more readers away, but it appears nobody has the fortitude to say it to the board.
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I’m sure the usual haters will be on here bringing up every little mistake Archant has ever made, like Helen “c-word” McDermott, giant banjo-gate, the loss of virtually every experienced reporter through ridiculous, petty and patronising management, and nearly accidentally declaring war on China. But not me.
This price rise is vital for securing the future of the bastion of quality of journalism that is the investigations unit. Without it, how would we know that trains are sometimes late, that national trends apply, to an extent, to East Anglia and that issues which were relevant five years ago can still be stretched over two days worth of double page spreads?
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That should be “in excess of £370,000 in extra profit” minus the loss of revenue caused by people deciding they’re not going to buy the paper any more due to the price increase. It would be interesting to know whether they have factored that in.
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After 40 odd years in the newspaper business I finally understand where my career went wrong.
I spent many. many of those years trying to attract new readers.
What a fool I am.
I should have been devoting my efforts to “developing new purchasers”.
It does explain, however, what those strange guys in white coats were doing when that little red light was on over the darkroom door – they were “Developing new purchasers”.
For heaven’s sake, Archant are supposed to be in the communications business. And we wonder why journalism as we know it is heading down the drain.
In the meantime I’ve got one tin of that old Ilford developer left. I am off to see if I can “develop some new purchasers” myself. A couple of minutes at 29 degrees C should do it.
I’ll be sure to let Archant know if I succeed.
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Hopefully they are running stories about how the increase will support local shopkeepers by allowing them to make more money? Or has the journalism and community element been forgotten in all this?
Not quite sure how an increase in price creates better value for money. Presumably at some point someone will decide ‘we need more content’ which equals either yet more pressure on reporters and subs, or just vast quantities of national PA features, and pressure on news eds and subs.
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You put your prices up coming from a position of strength, NOT when your readership has all but gone and certainly not when the quality of the papers and the current cost are reasons people aren’t buying the papers in the first place but that’s basic stuff that anyone running a business should or ought to know.
If I was a buyer of the EDP or weekly papers ( im not )I would not be too impressed to find the price had gone up unannounced, very sneaky and it would seriously make me wonder if the paper was worth the increased cost which I am sure many faced with this price rise will now do.
To lump a price rise in at a time when thousands of readers have voted with their feet and walked away from archants sorry portfolio of news papers already, simply indicates how desperate they are to grab every last penny they can get, albeit at the cost of losing more readers money than the added charge will accrue.
Really does make you wonder just who if anyone is coming up with these farcical decisions and whether everyone’s doing their own thing or if there’s anyone giving direction, going by the recent catastrophic mess ups I’d say it’s every man and woman for themselves
Looks like a business in free fall to me
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Seven questions for the board that most of us would like to know
1-Does this forecast £370,000 profit include likely losses when current buyers no longer purchase the papers due to the price rise and is this figure a guaranteed profit expectation ?
2- will the ice rink investment return a profit?
4- what’s the future of the Investigations Unit ( sorry I’m trying not to laugh ) now that it’s nine month ‘ trial period’ is up?
5- in light of the £657,000 loss incurred,and the ongoing embarrassments related to this operation what is the future for Mustard TV?
6- will the board remain in place if points 1 and 2 are not achieved ?
7-does the ceo feel his statement to make the company the leading local media group in the uk is on course to be achieved and I so why?
All simple straightforward questions that should be very easy to answer but ones that we are not given the opportunity to ask openly
Over to you
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Juan Archant: I only see six questions where you say seven.
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Shocking and naive decision and one that will only turn more people off buying the papers.
I can’t believe that following the crippling financial loss reported a few weeks ago regarding Mustard TV losing around £650,000 in one year they risk alienating even more people notably those that have bought the papers up til now, maybe they’d arrogance is such that they feel that their papers are worth the price and that no matter what they do of how much they charge people will continue to buy them.
I just hope Mr Bowman isn’t left carrying the can if and more likely when this third of a million profit increase fails to materialise.
Must be worrying times there these days if this is the kind of foolish decision that’s being made.
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I hesitate a moment before recommending the Guy Fawkes’ solution to Archant’s problems, as touched upon by Employee X, “desperate times demand desperate measures”.
But clearly a very radical approach is required. I got talking to a group of students from Norwich and asked them if any of them ever read the EDP or the Evening News. None of them did and when I asked why the all agreed unanimously that the company’s titles were just too boring. Cosy and predictable.
I think the problem is that the regionals are up against what people can see on the internet, which offers a far greater breadth of opinion.
It’s like the main BBC TV news nowadays. The bulletins are nearly all comment rather than fact. Telling you what to believe. Whenever there’s a world crisis they always seen to go to the White House for a comment first rather than our own PM, or any other leader. It’s all very subliminal, but it is getting across, with great skill, a propaganda message.
Go to Iran news on the Internet and you’d think it was from a different planet. That’s what people do nowadays (shop around) because we live in the telly age.
I’m not a Moslem, I don’t live in Norwich, but I do try to recognise facts however unpalatable they might be.
Now go away and write a Sixth Form essay on that.
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JP next to increase, need to generate revenue to achieve Q4 targets. Sales will decrease & in some cases -20% is acceptable this before any increases!
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Great work guys!
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Just how many more bad decisions and embarrassments must happen before the board at Archant step in and take action? Or are these ridiculous decisions and directives coming from the board themselves?
Time and again the company is made a laughing stock yet carries on as if nothing’s happened while all around losses happen and chaos ensues.
At one time I was proud to say I worked there, now I’m embarrassed knowing someone will mention Mustard TV , the all time low copy sales or how much the quality of the papers have gone down and good staff are long gone in so short a period of time, it’s also embarrassing when the names of staff who’ve left and are doing well working for competitive titles are mentioned too. More so as I have to agree with everything that’s being said.
Already I know of 7 friends or business people who will no longer be buying the EDP and weeklies due to this foolish cover price rise, this has given them cause to rev consider whether it’s worth it and clearly the answer is no.
I think 2016 will be a critical year for Archant and everyone working there if this is the way the company is going.
No investment,no product development, no forward thinking, no leadership, no direction,just empty promises and lip service and managers incapable or unprepared to manage.
No wonder so many are looking to leave
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It’s often the first (last?) sign of a company in meltdown that when all else fails they increase the price of the core products.
in over 25 years in local and national media I have yet to hear about any time when this desperation tactic has worked, as previous comments have said all it will do is turn more people off buying the papers so the spiral of lost readers will continue coupled with added I’ll feeling from ‘loyal’ readers who will feel they’ve been taken advantage of.
They’ll certainly have their work cut out retaining current buyers let alone trying to find new ones.
A ridiculous strategy and one guaranteed to do more harm than good.
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@dick I must have lost the ability to count unless number three was removed for some reason?
Probably the former tbh
I know most of us will settle for six answers though
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Only discovered it had gone up a few days ago and my newsagent has been charging the old price for some time on my bill without even noticing. Will fess up on that one of course.
An extra 5p is well worth it for the latest investigation or campaign to follow.
As it happens the latest is a campaign on mental health which offers no objective other than signing a pledge to, errr, be nice to people with mental health problems, which the vast majority of people are in any case. You couldn’t make it up.
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The laughable thing is their hope In gaining new readers. They couldn’t manage it before so why do they think they can now?
Can you imagine a car dealer adopting the same tactics? “I can’t sell this car, I know I will put the price up to see if that works”
Embarrassing and deluded.
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When readers are falling off in their droves and no longer buying the papers, When you’ve run out of ideas and all else has failed and when you’re under pressure to scrape money from anywhere what do Archant do ?
Yep, put the cover prices up
One last throw of the dice for the woeful EDP me thinks
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There was a good comment here from an analyst but I see it’s been removed?
Must have hit a nerve with someone ?
It was along the lines of if I have a product that no one wants, what should I do ?
A improve the product and keep the same price to encourage those few buying to buy and potential new buyers to try?
B do nothing and hope those who are buying it keep on buying it
C reduce the price to encourage new people to buy it and those currently to see this as a bonus
D put the price up
Looks like Archant have gone straight to plan D having seen it as the quickest option without actually doing anything
They seem to have overlooked the fact that if thousands no longer buy their papers, putting the price up will only worsen the situation
Or perhaps they’re arrogant enough to assume people will pay whatever they charge
And they wonder why they’re constantly fire fighting and reeling from one self inflicted body blow to another
Farcical
C
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@linett Option A is what most of the staff have been asking for for ages, just basic investment in the products and staff to make it truly better value and something people might be prepared to buy, not as now, given away when you buy a copy of the local weekly at local supermarkets.
Increasing the price of papers that have almost lost their market yet investing in an ice skating rink and throwing money at the hideous Mustard TV appear to be more important than the core business products, but this latest move might be yet another indication that they no longer see newspapers as important or having a future
.
A ridiculous and badly thought out tactic thst will surely spell even greater losses when the next set of (unbundled) newspaper ABCs are published
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Am I right in thinking that the profit they speak of is all for the newsagents not Archant? That’s how im reading it
If so why do it?
The newsagents will be in the front line when people realise the cost of the papers gone up and the agents will no doubt blame Archant plus they will also likely lose money as some of those currently buying will cancel so this third of a million profit bossy seems ambitious to say the least.
It’s bad enough if they do this to squeeze a few extra coppers out of the public but if theyre doing this just to appease the newsagents and will end up getting stick for such a ridiculous policy then I’m genuinely confused if they don’t stand to benefit from it
Anyone care to enlighten me?
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Have you thought about running a special love your pet supplement across all titles and platforms to offset these price increases mr Bowman?
I really think such a pull out would attract thousands of new readers as I read somewhere that the pet industry is worth £2.6bn and most families have at least one pet per household meaning you could provide more pet related content to your 9.6m potential audience
Maybe speak to the commercial chief and see what he thinks
I reckon it’s a winner!!
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It’s clear that the editor feels ‘value’ and ‘ what readers want’ is quantity over quality as all his embarrassing tweets are about how many pages the ‘great value’ EDP is and how many sections will ‘ thud through your letterbox! Rather than leading with quality of content, but when the quality and appeal , like the EDPs readership, has gone, all that’s left is quantity of pages as opposed to quality of content .
Sadly for mssrs Bowman and Pickover quality sells papers , not pagination and people can’t be expected to pay more for less
Basic business economics and something that’s clearly hard for Archant to understand
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