Roy Greensland writes in today’s Evening Standard about how and why papers are becoming their own newsagents.
Some interesting facts and trends:
The Financial Times was first out of the blocks with its premium delivery service, which began 10 years ago and was pumped up last year.
It offers readers within the M25 and in the Home Counties the chance to have copies delivered to their homes every day before 7am. Though it adds a small delivery charge, this can be offset by cover-price discounts of up to 30%, based on the length of the agreement. There are other benefits too, such as deals on FT.com subscriptions.
The FT has a minority stake in the distributor, 2 The Door, which is also used by the Wall Street Journal to delivery copies of its US edition in central London at £2.50 a day.
A couple of weeks ago, The Independent decided to get in on the act by piggybacking on the FT’s service to give its readers the chance to have Monday-to-Friday copies delivered at a cost of £6.
Across the counter, the joint cost is £4. If you also want the Saturday edition, it will set you back £7.50 (as against the usual £5.40 total).
That is a hefty charge but I am told it is in line with delivery fees in the Greater London area – and arguably a small expense for someone working in the City.
But News International, the Rupert Murdoch company that first launched a cover-price war 15 years ago, has completely undercut both papers by starting a home-delivery service entirely for free.
Readers of The Times and The Sunday Times have the chance to sign up for packages of either weekday, weekend or seven days’ worth of the titles.
The more frequently they agree to purchase papers, the smaller their outlay.
They will even be able to pay in arrears, and it could mean Sunday Times buyers saving as much as £50 a year in delivery charges.
A fascinating issue.
Distribution is the “black hole” of newspapers today.
Paid newspapers need to do much, much more.