Media
"FRAUDULENCE": Desperate "daily" newspapers that aren’t
No longer terribly interested in bringing you news, Fairfax has decided that it’s merely in the business of producing bits of paper with different dates on them to create the (false) impression that they’re publishing a daily newspaper.
View the latest missive from Spencer Street Central, aimed at clarifying for newsagents what’s happening at Fairfax over the Christmas Break. Answer: nothing much.
The Financial Review, for example, will be publishing a total of just 2 newspapers between 23 December and 5 January, although they’ll be calling those papers “Bumper Editions”. Just the thing for the bumpy weather those chaps are facing at present.
WHEN IS A DAILY NEWSPAPER NOT REALLY
And then there’s The Age, which, like a dog returning to its vomit, is once again revisiting its dodgiest of desperation strategies - the “Special Holiday Edition”. Remember this one? They do this whenever their haemoglobin count falls so low that the whole organisation is starting to develop a distinct, grey pallor. It’s the newspaper equivalent of emergency dialysis. They literally publish one newspaper but put it out on two consecutive days (that’s right – the same newspaper) so that some people will be stupid enough to buy it twice, and then – Voila! – instant sales lift, because of course, from a circulation audit point of view, the total sales figure accrued over two days can be claimed as one day’s worth, which by virtue of the dodgy newspaper audit rules, boosts The Age’s average daily sales figures by thousands.
Fraudulence, we say. Should be banned. For shame.
Perhaps the most significant point to note about the use of this pathetic tactic is that whilst The Age used this exact ploy last Christmas, they used it only once. This year they are doing it twice. Clearly times are twice as tough as they were this time last year. Here’s hoping only half as many people are fooled.
Discussion
13 comments for “"FRAUDULENCE": Desperate "daily" newspapers that aren’t”
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The Fin Review only ever publishes twice between Xmas eve and the first Monday after NY because everyones is on holidays. No point publishing on Xmas, Boxing Day, NY Day and the weekend because the market closed. Haven’t U noticed B4? No point publishing in the wk between Xmas and NY because deals are put on hold and share trading diminished. Haven’t U noticed B4? U should think first B4 spraying.
The worst part of the whole swindle is that they have the gall to charge at the Saturday price of $2.40 on both days.
Isn’t such circulation fraud illegal? Trying to profit from deception is known to be fraud – and illegal.
Dear Freak Angel, good to see Fairfax PR spinners have time to read Landeryou, but the sad fact is, at a time when there is more financial and business news to report on than in almost a generation, the “premier” business newspaper is taking a holiday. Isn’t the real reason that Fairfax can’t afford the paper and advertisers are staying away in droves?
Presumably Freak Angel has some kind of justification for why The Age continues to pull this “Bumper” Rort. “Because they can”, perhaps?
The truth is the Fin.Review should be getting much better circulation that it is. Poor circulation results in reduced editions.
Sorry for the Fairfax people but if the Fin.Review was raking in the $$$ then Fairfax would be pumping out the editions, not cutting them back.
Yeah, “because they can” and “because everyone else does.” New Scientist, The Economist and The Guardian Weekly all produce double editions during the Xmas-NY break. Don’t see U bleating about that.
As to “there is more financial and business news to report on than in almost a generation.” Well not much financial news is not going to happen in the Xmas-NY break with all senior bankers, fund and business managers on holiday. Why bother producing a thin newspaper that no-one will read and is uneconomic to print.
As discretionary spending declines so do newspaper sales. Fin.Rev circulation is down slightly compared with other newspapers. But not as much as The Herald Sun’s 2.4% drop in the September quarter and The Australian is only been able to “grow” its circulation by giving away free copies in hotels, airports and the like.
I don’t think Fairfax PR spinners bother reading Landeryou.
“because everybody else does”??? Sorry but the minor pubications who mention do not constitute everbody else.
Please name any other metro daily newspaper in Australia that runs this scam.
One newspaper put out on two consecutive days? The Weekend Australian
According to a Canadian associate of mine former (ha, ha, ha!) Councillor from Banyule Dean Sherriff is forming “an investment vehicle” for “investment in Australian media equities”. An expression of interest package, as it is called, was sent to HSBC in Canada. If this is true and he gets a stake in something like Star Newspapers, oh my goodness: you haven’t seen biased coverage yet people!
ASIC should stop him.
Bilal Skaf….do you mean The Weekend Australian distributes the same edition on two separate days and combines the sales..or do you mean The Weekend Australian is distributed on Saturday and sells across Saturday and Sunday?
Very different executions.
Dear Freak Angel
“Why bother producing a thin paper that no-one reads and is uneconomic to print?”: good question. Why don’t you ask the happy team at The Age? Yesterday’s edition was evidently the last to feature a Wednesday classified section, so it will be thinner still next week. And as for your theory about the Australian giving away free copies, only dickheads run that argument. You can’t provide newspapers to anybody free of charge and count them in your paid circulation. Someone has to be paying for them or the auditors wouldn’t let them be counted, and so what if it’s in an airport or a hotel – that’s where the readers are – it’s called marketing.
And as for that bogus notion that no news happens between Christmas and new year, Lordy. Do you think there’ll be many people taking leave at NAB, CBA, WBC, ANZ, Merrill, Goldman Sachs, RBA et al this year? Only lazy newspapers take a holiday, their readers certainly don’t.
Nothing happens over Christmas news-wise. Now when was that Tsunami?