FREE OR NOT FREE, THAT IS THE QUESTION
What do you think of free newspapers? I'm thinking more of the likes of Metro in London that the hundreds of others in the UK that are shoved through letterboxes every week.
Metro's latest audited figures show daily distribution of more than 630,000 copies. That's a lot. There's a big difference between the likes of Metro, where you physically make a decision to pick up a copy, to the other kinds that land on your doormat whether you like it or not. I would guess that almost all of Metro's copies are actually read whereas a large number in the latter category end up in the bin.
Bangkok has nothing like Metro - yet. I think with the right marketing and distribution a Thai language Metro-style newspaper would work here. Advertising is obviously the clincher but I think it would be so different and so unique that it would work. What do you think?
3 comments:
Here in Switzerland we now have about 4 of these free newspapers, one with more than 1 million copies a day. They are a huge success and I'm sure this will work in any other country.
The problem is that the most successful one attracts so much advertising that it starts to become unattractive to read.
Greets
Hanspeter
"There's a big difference between the likes of Metro, where you physically make a decision to pick up a copy, to the other kinds that land on your doormat whether you like it or not..."
Damn that hits right to the point of some of local free magazines. There are the ones that people CHOOSE to pick up and ones that are shoved in your face along with Friday newspapers.. Which "readership" would you trust more? Even if you claim to have more circulation doesn't mean you have more people reading it.
Am I right or am I right?
Hans - I understand your point totally but from a publishers point of view it's the advertising that generates the income for a free newspaper. However an increase in advertising should be matched by an increased in editorial.
Kitty - Right, as always. For me there is nothing worse than seeing a pile of unread free magazines. And there's lots of them right now in Bangkok. There's yet another one now - 24/7 from GMM Group. (It was actually next to BK on the counter in Asia Books). You need somehow to create value for people to want your free title and look for it, but if it's handed to them it stands a better chance of being read. I wonder how many copies of BK are actually read and how many lay on the counter? No one really knows for sure.
Post a Comment