Readers of a free weekly have been told they will now only receive a copy every third week following a review by a regional publisher.
People who have Archant’s Norwich Extra title delivered have been informed of the change, while the company has also told readers of the Great Yarmouth Advertiser they will receive a copy every second week.
Archant told readers the decisions have been made with the aim of “serving our local communities as effectively as possible while also maximising the response for our advertising clients”, and HTFP understands the distribution areas in which the papers are delivered will be expanded as a result of the move.
Those receiving copies of Norwich Extra have been advised to visit the title’s website instead on weeks when it is not delivered to them, while Advertiser readers are being redirected to the website of paid-for sister weekly the Great Yarmouth Mercury.
They have also been encouraged to buy the Mercury or the Norwich Evening News, which is also run by Archant.
In a letter to readers, which has been seen by HTFP, the Norwich Extra distribution team said: “In recent months, we have reviewed letterbox distribution at the Norwich Extra, and as a result of this review we have learnt that we will need to make a number of changes on this front.
“One outcome of this review is that after this publication, you will receive your Norwich Extra every third week, not weekly. This is so we can spread our reach and serve the wider community.
“The decision on where to deliver is always a difficult one, ultimately driven by our publishing strategy. This aims to serve our local communities as effectively as possible while also maximising the response for our advertising clients.”
Norwich Extra was launched in 2016 to replace the Norwich Advertiser with an initial print run of 60,000.
The letter added: “We would like to thank you sincerely for your support of the Norwich Extra – it is greatly appreciated.”
Archant announced the closure of its Norwich print plant in September, affecting 96 job based there.
At the time the move was announced, the company said the “majority” of jobs based at Thorpe, including drivers, would be transferred to Newsprinters, Menzies or Smiths News, although it envisaged there may be some redundancies.
However Unite last month accused the company of “misleading” customers over the number of jobs which will be lost as a result and says only the roles, not the workforce, would transfer.
Archant repeatedly declined to reveal exactly how many jobs were at risk when approached by HTFP, but has stood by its original statement on the matter.
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Utter madness
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Who came up with this feeble excuse of an idea? Who sat in the meeting at which it was floated and agreed with it? Wake up! Back it or pull it. This half-baked compromise is laughable.
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JPI could do with pulling some of their free papers, which are pretty pathetic offerings.
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What a mess! Why not just use bulk pick up points like many other publications? Some you don’t even have to pay for.
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“…..decisions have been made with the aim of “serving our local communities as effectively as possible while also maximising the response for our advertising clients”,
Not the case, it’s to reduce costs with a view to closing titles and is the most laughable quote since yesterday’s head office announcement to all staff.
Rather than announcing they’d closed the long standing Norwich Advertiser and be seen to be retreating from the city they chose to launch this dreadful title which was cobbled together and thrown out to much fanfare by the editor.
It was also to protect The Advertiser’ ad revenue which was transferred across but over the months revenue and interest has dwindled so much so that this paper has been chosen to be ‘downgraded’
As with the GY Advertiser all they’re doing is trying to gradually migrate readers into the online sites to drive up traffic with the longer term purpose of closing both titles and making them online reader titles only, something I and many other commenters on HTFP said would happen sooner rather than later and in light of the cost to produce freesheets bringing in dreadful as revenues and which so few are interested in any longer.
This is also the first step to closing titles now the company has contracted its printing out to a third party way off the local Norfolk patch, again something many predicted on HTFP once the print centre closure was announced.
Look out for more titles being driven online only in the coming weeks
you heard it here first
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Not sure whether this goes through doors or not, but if it does and you need to cut costs, why not do bulk drops instead? Much easier and readers can pick it up when they do their weekly shop. Giving them one in three is a quite extraordinary decision.
Also, breaking news, there is a ‘publishing strategy’. Who knew?
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Short term policies such as the launch of the Norwich Extra and now it’s graduated closure, pushed through unopposed are not uncommon here,both titles are on the wane and neither will be missed.
Whilst a copy of the free through the letterbox might elicit a cursory glance, putting it online only will drive more people away.
Neither have sufficient news content in them to grab readers and we all know people do not look at a local weekly.even less a bi- weekly or tri- weekly, on line to buy things.
It’s part of the wider plan of under the radar title closures, simple as that.
With the awkward and hyperbolic explanation to staff about the head office development on Wednesday and now this,could I suggest they consider employing a more proficient and plausible PR person.
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Off the top of my head there are at least eight sizeable supermarkets in and around Norwich – three Sainsbury, two Tesco, two Asda and one Morrison – plus numerous smaller shops. Had Archant been planning to keep any of its own distribution staff beyond November it would have made sense to initiate a series of pick-up points for this title. Instead we have the latest crackpot announcement from a company now on its financial knees. As others say – all about gradual steps to everything going online within two years. Next stop: weekly amalgamations?
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With what’s been going on at Archant over the past couple of years, this strange move does not surprise me. The company was once at the forefront of delivering news. Nowadays even its corporate website is laughable – visit it, follow the link to Media Centre and then News from the dropdown box. The latest news? Double joy for EDP at Regional Press Awards – May 20, 2019. Yep, six months ago.
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This is bonkers: readers won’t know when to expect a copy, and advertisers won’t be able to reliably get out to an audience.
Saw the GY Advertiser a couple of weeks back and it seemed to have pretty healthy advertising and having just checked the online version of Norwich Extra it has 16/40 pages of ads this week, not including house ads or packaged jobs. At rate card ROP that would be about £38k, but realistically it’s likely to be half that.
There’s no editorial cost as it’s recycled material but there will be some layout needed. The last mile of distribution is dirt cheap but bundling and delivering might have got more expensive with the outsourcing deal – but this will still be needed with rotational delivery.
Cutting the circulation by two-thirds won’t reduce the major production cost but it will put off advertisers.
The ballsy thing to do would be to increase distribution to the many parts of the city that they don’t currently deliver to and be more attractive to advertisers – who can otherwise also turn to digital and and get a targeted audience for a lot less.
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How can Archant be serving their local communities more effectively when the news will be three weeks old. Pathetic. Just an excuse to find an excuse, so to speak, to close it eventually.
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Another nail in the coffin. Sigh.. It’s all gone Pete Tong.
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The advertising rates are at giveaway prices but this isn’t about finances and distribution methods, it’s purely about the start of moving the entire free paper portfolio to digital and closing newspaper versions, it’s their sole focus and their only priority so however it’s dressed up it’s the start of a gradual migration to becoming a digital only news business.
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You’re way off the mark thinking as rates are cut by 50% @Scoop, these days it’s more like 60-75% more if you’re on an annual “deal”
This is the start of papers going online starting with the free paper in Yarmouth there’s also an Archant paid for there which sells very little so it’s no loss to drop the freebie, and the City extra was a stop gap so with two other Norwich titles on the go that’s no loss either.
Don’t be fooled, it’s about nothing but going full in digital
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Ad rates not ‘as’
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Distribution of the free sheet in Lowestoft and the surrounding areas has also been cut back as it appears to be being delivered once every three weeks now.
Another under the radar cutback by Archant who haven’t announced this formally other than letters to the door to door delivery teams leaving the public confused and local business enraged.
Apparently businesses advertising in the Lowestoft Advertiser have had to ask questions on public run Lowestoft Facebook sites to find this out and having discovered the reduction in numbers naturally are concerned about the drop off in coverage without the price being reduced accordingly, this has prompted many to pull current advertising or use other local competitors to advertise with.
A friend with 2 successful businesses in the area has tried to get a managerial response to this but so far ( 2 weeks on) no one has come back to him so naturally he has chosen to spend his promotional money elsewhere. Similarly he wasn’t able to get an answer to how many copies of the New European were being sold nor what the reach of Mustard Tv was when those two things were being pushed as the flavour of the month.
Is it any wonder local paper readerships and finances are in the state they’re in when the public are taken for granted and this level of poor customer service is the norm.
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