SHOPS PAY TO STOCK FREE NEWSPAPERS

In London news agencies are paying to stock copies of the now free London Evening Standard newspaper.
Editor Geordie Grieg said yesterday: ""We used to pay a large commission to newsagents to sell the Standard. We now have dozens of newsagents paying us 2p a copy to have have in their shop ... which they then give away."
The newspaper dropped its 50p cover price two months ago. Just one example of how readership has increased can be seen from one central London location where it previously sold 700 copies per day. It now distributes more than 10,000 free copies from that same location.
I'm not against the concept of magazine publishers paying for exposure on the shelves in Thailand and I've said so before in recent months. Right now publishers pay anything between 30 and 50 per cent of the cover price for every copy sold. If no copies are sold then the bookshop gets no revenue and, obviously, neither does the publisher.
Paying an additional 5 baht per copy, for example, for decent exposure is something I would be willing to do.