Blogging from inside Fairfax about newspaper giveaways

I’ve commented here several times about the challenges with some newspaper publisher giveaways: consumer frustration at lack of stock; the rules and lack of compliance by some retailers. Last night I stumbled across this blog entry by astrovisionary, an employee at Fairfax, about complaints publishers receive about the giveaways.

I’ve wondered about the etiquette of outing someone blogging about their employer but then I figured, hey, they have published their opinions so go ahead.

I found the blog interesting because the writer makes it clear she works for Fairfax and talks frankly about her employer. I also found the content of this entry interesting because it presents another side of a topic which frustrates me.

Consider these comments:

signs that its a monday morning at fairfax #87046:

dozens and dozens of phone calls from whinging old people flood in complaining that they missed out on the Sun Herald bonus cd/dvd/poster/free pile of crap that they were meant to be giving away with the copy of the paper. the best part is, i’m not even meant to field these calls.

what i don’t understand is why our company only seems to print of a handful of these freebies, because it seems like so many newsagents etc never have any.

but what i understand even less is why so many people are so devastated at missing out on these crappy free things and so determined to get their hands on one. DON’T YOU PEOPLE HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO WITH YOUR LIVES?!

happy monday, everyone!

I wonder if her boss knows she blogs? Here is a selection of the comments posted:

bizza on May 29th, 2006 01:29 am (UTC)
what i don’t understand is why our company only seems to print of a handful of these freebies

to save costs, silly! also, probably the newsagents steal them all.

astrovisionary on May 29th, 2006 01:34 am (UTC)
but it gives people the shits!

and by people i mean those who want these free things, and me – who has to field half the complaints relating to these free things.

i think the SH advertising manager has a secret stash of flags in his desk. i might go and steal one.

protag on May 29th, 2006 05:03 am (UTC)
Meesh, any chance you can get me copies of the free colour dinosaur liftouts from April–June 1999.
…each signed by David Kirk?

Publishers could certainly benefit from reviewing their giveaway strategy.