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News Corp expects retail newsagents to give away customers

hsucoverupThe front page of the Herald Sun in retail newsagencies today has a stuck on ad covering news telling my customers to get the paper home delivered and thereby avoid coming to my shop. Not any more. News says it wants a better relationship with retail newsagents. Here’s where to start.

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newspaper masthead desecration

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  1. Brendan

    This has been a bone of contention with me for years. They use us with little regard for our place in their future.

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  2. Carol

    Courier Mail regularly has double page adds enticing customers to go on line.

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  3. Brendan

    My biggest issue is when they plaster it onto the front page. We have run out of papers again today, perhaps if they gave us enough they would not need to make these offers.

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  4. David @ Angle Vale Newsagency

    But Brendan, if they gave you enough, people wouldn’t be driven from retail to subscription. Maybe running out of papers early in the day is part of their plan.

    As far as I am concerned, it is their product and they can run any ads they like, but in my shop, it is my space and I don’t feel inclined to display defaced newspapers.

    I also noticed that the last time the Advertiser did this there were no stickers on the papers supplied to the supermarket, only on mine.

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  5. Helen

    Hi – I’m only a reader – but wanted to say that I’m now buying the Saturday Paper as I am fed up with the Murdoch press. I feel sorry for newsagents – but they should play a part in our democracy and champion media diversity more vigorously! My local newsagent doesn’t stock the Saturday paper so I have to buy it elsewhere. Also – why not partner with a good cafe and make it more enticing for people to buy a paper and sit and have a read? Lots of us in middle age are nostalgic for newsprint but don’t want to be lectured to by idealogue news proprietors! Innovation is needed, and a recognition of the role that news plays in a democracy. Don’t let them push you around – get together as a business community and start making newsagents count in people’s lives! Also, how about the desire for digital detox? Lots of folks worry about too much screen time – reading on paper is more relaxing. You need to hone in on these important issues and find ways to innovate so that newsagents are not just poor shadows of what the could be. Cheers, Helen

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  6. ryan

    the last time the advertiser put stickers on my retail only outlets papers i peeled them all off and was the told by news limited that i was defacing the paper. funny that.

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  7. David @ Angle Vale Newsagency

    Ryan, I was told that “customers had complained they didn’t get the sticker on their paper”.

    Truth, Advertiser rep visited me because I posted on here under my own name.

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