Coles supermarkets are offering access to News Corp daily newspapers at half price when people spend $30 or more in the supermarket.
I noticed the promotion at the checkout counters in three different Coles outlets over the weekend. In two cases newsagency businesses are located less than 100 metres away from a Coles.
This News Corp. / Coles promotion makes our channel look expensive.
The half price newspaper promotion is a campaign that could break the habit of someone who used to regularly purchase their newspaper at the newsagency.
While News Corp. employees regularly say how important our channel is to their business their actions challenge belief in those words.
It is one thing for a supplier to have products located in a nearby competitor business it is another thing for them to support that competitor in a half price campaign such as that we see here.
News Corp. folks may respond to this saying this is a Coles run promotion. While I have no evidence about how it is being paid for, I doubt Coles is funding the 50% discount.
This campaign will be another factor newsagents consider when they assess their commitment to newspapers in-store.
This promotion appears in the Coles catalogue distributed to homes and online. The four week timeline could be especially damaging to nearby newsagents.