Comments on: The battle of the freesheets - Will the public ultimately lose out? http://www.pkellypr.com/blog/2006/0119/the-battle-of-the-freesheets-will-the-public-ultimately-lose-out/ Irish Communications Consultant - Be Noticed Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:43:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Padraig McKeon http://www.pkellypr.com/blog/2006/0119/the-battle-of-the-freesheets-will-the-public-ultimately-lose-out/#comment-1335 Padraig McKeon Sat, 21 Jan 2006 21:57:38 +0000 http://pkellypr.com/blog/2006/0119/the-battle-of-the-freesheets-will-the-public-ultimately-lose-out/#comment-1335 The title poses an interesting question. I drive past c. 1/2 dozen distribution points daily. To me at this point there seems to be notably more Herald distributors on the street. Does this mean the Metro is losing out. I don't think so. The Metro have said from the outside that this is a long term play and that means years. They have also I believe targetted getting to something like 55,000 in terms of copies being distributed daily. Most importantly as I have come to understand their thinking, they did not enter the market to take out the Herald but rather to put a completely new proiduct into the market that had its own space and standing. If all that is the case then it raises serious questions as to the strategy adopted by Herald management and it's long term wisdom. It's hard to believe that the existence of a 'morning' Herald isn't cannabalising the sales of the Evening Herald so The Independent Group pocket may be getting hit twice (the cost of Herald AM and the losses on the Evening Herald) to protect themselves against something that was targetting a market they weren't in in the first place and against a 'competitor' that may not have impacted them that badly if they had just stood back and let them get on with it?? It's a theory anyway The title poses an interesting question. I drive past c. 1/2 dozen distribution points daily. To me at this point there seems to be notably more Herald distributors on the street. Does this mean the Metro is losing out. I don’t think so. The Metro have said from the outside that this is a long term play and that means years. They have also I believe targetted getting to something like 55,000 in terms of copies being distributed daily. Most importantly as I have come to understand their thinking, they did not enter the market to take out the Herald but rather to put a completely new proiduct into the market that had its own space and standing. If all that is the case then it raises serious questions as to the strategy adopted by Herald management and it’s long term wisdom. It’s hard to believe that the existence of a ‘morning’ Herald isn’t cannabalising the sales of the Evening Herald so The Independent Group pocket may be getting hit twice (the cost of Herald AM and the losses on the Evening Herald) to protect themselves against something that was targetting a market they weren’t in in the first place and against a ‘competitor’ that may not have impacted them that badly if they had just stood back and let them get on with it??

It’s a theory anyway

]]> By: Paul Browne http://www.pkellypr.com/blog/2006/0119/the-battle-of-the-freesheets-will-the-public-ultimately-lose-out/#comment-1333 Paul Browne Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:03:49 +0000 http://pkellypr.com/blog/2006/0119/the-battle-of-the-freesheets-will-the-public-ultimately-lose-out/#comment-1333 I'm still amazed at the number of people they were able to get to distribute the papers (at about 48 hours notice) I’m still amazed at the number of people they were able to get to distribute the papers (at about 48 hours notice)

]]> By: Alan http://www.pkellypr.com/blog/2006/0119/the-battle-of-the-freesheets-will-the-public-ultimately-lose-out/#comment-1331 Alan Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:15:27 +0000 http://pkellypr.com/blog/2006/0119/the-battle-of-the-freesheets-will-the-public-ultimately-lose-out/#comment-1331 To be honest, I don't see a lot of discarded newspapers on the ground but if it became a problem I'm sure the city fathers would have something to say about it. Presumably they could introduce a by-law which explicitly prohibited the distribution of free newspapers. To be honest, I don’t see a lot of discarded newspapers on the ground but if it became a problem I’m sure the city fathers would have something to say about it. Presumably they could introduce a by-law which explicitly prohibited the distribution of free newspapers.

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