If You Want To Rock n’ Roll Or Just Plain Listen To Previously Unreleased Music For Free, Let Alone Watch Movies Not Yet Released, Or Take Really Cheap Vacations Then Just Buy UK National Newspapers

Philip M. Stone October 16, 2007

Their music may be quite different but there is something that binds together such diverse musicians as Ray Davies, Prince, Travis, The Stranglers, Bob Marley, Iggy Pop, Ian Dury, and The Ramones – their CDs are free when buying a UK national newspaper.

The Sunday Times is launching a new Ray Davies 10-track album Working Man’s Café this coming Sunday, and one track, “Vietnam Cowboys” can already be downloaded for free on the Times’ website.  The full 12-track album will be released in stores a week later. The former Kinks front man said in a statement, “I'm incredibly proud of this album and I am truly excited that 1.5 million copies will be distributed to people who'll hear it organically, the way it was intended. It's an exciting opportunity I couldn't resist."

And what does the Sunday Times hope to get out of this? It has been a year since it raised its cover price to £2 and in those 12 months circulation has dropped 6.06%. It is hoping for a similar circulation bump that The Mail on Sunday (MoS) got in July when it gave away the previously unreleased Planet Earth album by Prince and circulation rose 600,000 on the day. Practically all of that was lost again the following week but the MoS claims its overall circulation is up more than 30,000. The Sunday Times, as did the MoS, says it is spending well into six figures to heavily promote the giveaway.

And in the September audited figures, if there is a recurring theme in addition to September doing better than August, the traditional month when most Brits take their vacations, then it is that CD and DVD giveaways do boost numbers on the day, and false as those figure may be to their true reading public, they count within the official audit averages.

So the Daily Star Sunday’s giveaway of CDs by The Stranglers, Ramones, Iggy Pop, Bob Marley and Ian Drury caused its September circulation to come in at some 20% above a year ago, the best of any UK national newspaper, but, confusingly, that may just be an indication of how badly it was doing a year ago since the September circulation was still down some 8% over August.

The Observer gave away a variety of freebies -- a DVD of Prince’s Sign o’ the Times, two photographic prints, and its Book of Money all of which gave it a 6.7% increase over August and a 3.1% increase over the past 12 months.

Over at Rupert Murdoch’s Sun tabloid, where the goal is to keep circulation above 3 million, the paper launched a major TV promotion for its £9.50 ($19, €14) holidays while at the same time maintaining its cut-price 20p price in London and south-east England that it started at the beginning of September. That lower price has to hurt financially since 40% of its circulation is from that area and at 15 pence a copy less the circulation revenue drop  has to be close to  £180,000 ($360,000, €255,000)  daily. The Sun is now on a four-month run of increasing circulation (in March it got worryingly close to that psychological 3 million barrier at 3,031,724) and September’s figures were more comfortable at 3,213,756 which was 1.75% better than August, but for the 12 months it is still down 0.10%.

Over at the Mail on Sunday circulation continues on the upside since its Prince giveaway in July that gave it an average of 2,319,788 for that month. The September figures are at 2,348,982, no doubt helped by its world premiere release of the movie, The Riddle, a 12-track Travis CD which had one new song, and it joined in a promotion with its sister Daily Mail in giving away a 14- DVD set of David Attenborough wildlife videos. That promotion saw the Daily Mail with a 1.12% increase for the month, but it was still down 1.87% over 12 months.

The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror also joined together in giving away 13 DVDs and fact files on the subject of mysteries (Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and the like) which saw the daily paper up 0.15% over August and the Sunday paper up 0.91%.

Take all of that together and for someone who really wanted to boost their CD and DVD collections for a pittance, buying a daily and Sunday newspaper was the way to go.

Not all newspapers had to resort to such tactics to improve their numbers, some actually relied on good old fashioned journalism. The Financial Times was all over the subprime crisis and how the Northern Rock Bank in the UK actually had a run on it – something not seen since the US depression days  and which didn’t stop until the UK government guaranteed deposits (No FDIC and the like for six figure deposits as in the US). For its journalistic work the FT was rewarded with global sales at 441,219, a 3.4% increase over August, but the UK and Ireland numbers are only at 141,794, an increase of 5,600 over a year ago.

And it was superior journalism that helped the London PM newspaper Evening Standard increase its circulation against the onslaught of two free PM newspapers. Say what you will of the free newspapers, but  detailed, well written news stories are not their forte, and the Standard  had very solid coverage of the Madeleine McCann case which has hit headlines around the world (The British girl who disappeared from her holiday  hotel room in Portugal – parents say she was abducted but the Portuguese police were making noises in September that the family may have something to do with the disappearance, something they vehemently deny.) That coverage saw overall sales up 4.9%.

And increasing cover prices seems to have uncertain results. The Guardian raised its price to 80 pence a copy in mid-month, more expensive than its main rivals, yet it still managed a 3.3% increase over August – would it have done better but for the increase? As it is its year-on-year numbers are down 5.5% to 367,546.

Looking at the Guardian figures for October, when it will have a clear month of the price increase, will tell if is going to be punished the same way the Sunday Times was a year ago, or whether it has not yet reached the tipping point for a daily quality newspaper, allowing others to follow.

Deep in one’s heart there is a feeling that if the newspapers were to take most of that money they are spending on CDs and DVDs and the like and instead pour it into truly great journalism that they would get the same improved results, but with a readership that sticks instead of one that just rips off the plastic, throws away the newspaper and keeps the freebie.

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