From newsagents I have spoken with an the experience in my two retail outlets, sales of The Age in Melbourne yesterday will be excellent thanks to the free coasters given away with the newspaper. The give away creates some in store fun and that’s always welcome. A couple of customers commented on the number of giveaways with The Age recently and wondered why The Age was doing it. One even said “don’t they realise it’s a newspaper”. True story.
I look forward to the day newspaper publishers in Australia will actively and consistently advertise the quality and depth of news and analysis as a reason to purchase their product. I’ve seen The Australian do this recently but not enough in my view.
In the meantime how about a rest from the likes of drink coasters?