For those who are interested in this sort of thing, here’s the advertising info for the Freep’s new Sunday tab edition, On7. Below is some hype from the VP of Sales & Marketing. A couple of observations:
- A full-page ad in On7 will cost about half as much as one in Uptown, the Freep-owned entertainment weekly. Interesting.
- The initial print run will be about 35,000. I’m guessing within six weeks the number is half of that.
- They’re trying to appeal to the 18-35 year old demographic with a printed newspaper that’s distributed on Sunday mornings only through retail and newspaper boxes. *Genius.*
- If late sports scores from the west coast were really all that important to me, don’t you think I’d find them online, or on my phone or by watching TSN/SportsNet/The Score? Am I really going to wait until I walk down to 7/11 in the morning?
- From the sound of the content description, it seems they’re trying to produce a commuter paper in a non-commuter market on a non-commuting day. And this made enough sense to enough people for it to actually happen?
————
What type of editorial will On7 have?
The emphasis will be on breaking news, sports and entertainment; all areas that appeal to a younger 18 to 35 year old demographic. The features will be easy to read with the sports section being a pull-out section from the middle of the paper. As we will be printing this newspaper at 1:00 am on Sunday we will have the editorial edge to be able to include late scores, west coast sports as well as full concert coverage including the encore! This is something that no other newspaper in Winnipeg will be able to do.
Where will On7 be available?
On7 will be sold in all the regular retail outlets and convenience stores. Additionally, we will have over 100 bright orange vending boxes that will be in strategic locations throughout the city. On7 will be available in the City of Winnipeg and other selected areas.
What will the circulation be?
We are quoting our advertisers a circulation figure of 25,000, even though our expectations are higher than that. We will be printing and distributing over 35,000 copies in the early weeks to gage the popularity of the newspaper and the circulation hot spots. We will increase this print run if there is a greater demand. By promising the advertiser a 25,000 circulation we are making a conservative estimate and avoid the risk of under delivering on our promises.
How will this launch be promoted to the readers?
In addition to the letters that have been sent out to our subscribers explaining the changes to our Weekend Edition and the launch of On7, we have also invested in a heavy weight media plan to tell new readers about the new newspaper that will be available from November 1st. In addition to radio and television advertisements, we have also invested in a billboard campaign and bus kings. Also, the installation of the bright orange vending boxes will not go unnoticed.
What target audience will On7 attract?
Our target readership will have a slight male bias, have children in the household and be between the ages of 18 to 35. The media kit attached gives a greater insight into what their buying habits are and their hobbies and interests. We have taken this data into consideration when we planned the content of this new newspaper as we are aware of how advertisers are always in need of a strong medium to talk to this important target group.
Why is this publication only available in retail stores and vending boxes? Why can’t it be delivered to my home?
The single most costly expense for a newspaper in Canada is the delivery of it to our readers’ doors. The delivery costs far outstrip the cost of editorial, printing and production combined. When we considered the changes to the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper, cost savings were very high on our agenda. Instead of following other Canadian newspapers by simply cutting out one publication day, we wanted to take a proactive approach and still serve our readers. We have made sure that the features that were important to them – such as Homes, Perspective and Books – are moved to our Saturday Weekend edition and this new compact newspaper reports on the latest news sports and entertainment.
Filed under: winnipeg blog | Tagged: Winnipeg Free Press
Depending on their willingness to eat losses, I can’t see this lasting a year.
This business model is doomed.
If I’m at a store on Sunday and feel the need to buy a paper to take home or read over coffee at Tim’s or Starbucks, I’m either going to pick up the big Saturday Free Press the stores will still have stocked if I didn’t get it the day before, or I’ll buy the Sun.
I can’t see any reason to spend a buck on a small tabloid.
They should have just expanded the reach of Uptown with more boxes into the ‘burbs and put it out Sunday morning at 6AM and have people pick that up. Fill it with a bit more content, add some sports and boom, you have a free option to discourage people from buying the Sun.
I was toying with a similar idea Brodie, although I’m not sure how Sunday morning distribution would work with the entertainment listings.
Another possibility would be moving distribution of the weekly community papers to Sundays and beefing up the content a bit.
Either option gets something to read — with an established brand — into people’s hands on a Sunday.
Now would be an interesting time for the Metro Commuter paper to launch in Winnipeg, which they were planning on doing before the economy tanked last year. With the Free Press annoying a lot of subscribers with the 6 day home delivery and trying to launch a lame paid tabloid, a lot of people might be convinced to skip the Free Press delivery at home and pick up a free 10 page Metro on the way to work. The key would be working distribution in a very non-commuter market, but get a enough free boxes in high traffic employment areas and it could work. I know I would be tempted.
Also how did this dropping a delivery day thing work for the carriers union contract? That’s a pretty big hit for their income to take.
I assume Marty Gold will not begrudge them the frozen pork they have squirreled away in their deep freezers for just such a dark day?
I like the following hype points:
- “The features will be easy to read”. Translation: fluff.
- “the installation of the bright orange vending boxes will not go unnoticed”. That’s always a plus point I look for when doing an ad buy for my company !
Still, I guess, you don’t know what will fly until to try. I can’t imagine this working out but considering media companies bigger than this have floundered trying to feel thier way in the dark … give it a try.
My preferred would have been to make a kick ass Saturday paper. Charge more and let people spend two days digesting it. Make it the “must have” paper and forget doing a tab on Sunday.
@Mrchristian
“My preferred would have been to make a kick ass Saturday paper. Charge more and let people spend two days digesting it. Make it the “must have” paper.”
That’s precisely the plan, Christian. The Sunday tab is gravy, really.
If all works out as planned, there should be far more local content in On7 than there is in the Sunday Sun.
Incidentally, my column has been moved from Detour on Saturdays into the new Sunday tab.
Bartley Kives
“The emphasis will be on breaking news, sports and entertainment; all areas that appeal to a younger 18 to 35 year old demographic.”
Well maybe if they tried doing that more during the week instead of giving so much real estate to what Doug’s dog ate for breakfast or who Gordy saw at Bergmenn’s then the freep wouldn’t be in this spot.
Speaking as a male between the ages of eighteen to thirty-five, whose buying habits and hobbies and interests are all apparently accounted for in the decision making process, and whose favourite colour actually is orange — nope, I’m still pretty distrustful of the whole thing.
A buck twenty-five on store shelves, for a copy of last night’s sports and entertainment? That’s almost as much as any given beer out of a six- or twelve-pack costs, and speaking on behalf of my age group here I think you can guess which way my discretionary spending will lean on that one.
Maybe my initial wariness will be unfounded and it’ll be a really swell paper after all — but then, unless somebody around me buys it and I look at it out of curiosity after they’re done with it, how would I even find out unless I’m committed to buying the thing in the first place?
Good luck regardless, Free Press! And if it turns out that you’ve hit upon the mysterious 18-to-35 magic bullet that nobody else in the business has ever managed to identify until now, then I’d imagine you’ll probably be far too busy doing Scrooge McDuck dives into your vast piles of money to worry about what some dude wrote in the comments field of a local blog anyway.
“On7 will be available in the City of Winnipeg and other selected areas”
Um, what are these other selected areas that are chock full of desireable 18-35 readers? So, we’ll have a once a week tabloid that magically appeals to the Osborne Village bohemian, the young power couple in south River Heights, and the guy in Steinbach? Winkler? What are the “other selected areas”? Reach into Portage to make sure people know what the encore song was at the Saturday concert? How often does Winnipeg even work into the schedule as the “Saturday concert market”?
Just axe the Sunday. Agree with PF that maybe Sunday is the day for bulked up, quality weeklies. Weeklies that cover local school boards etc. Plus wouldn’t you sell more advertising in said Canstar weeklies if you reduce the competition a bit on Sundays? If I’m looking at a full page ad in the Lance and I know that it isn’t competing with the freebie dumping of the Sunday Homes section might I not pay more for said Lance/Metro/Herald ad?
And while they’re at it… try axing the Tab and stop cannibalizing the Uptown market. And maybe make Uptown look a bit more like its peers in other cities. With all the so-called arts scene things going on in Pegcity, all the bands, all the dance, all the theatre how is it that Edmonton can publish a thicker, better busride read? Just don’t you dare charge me a buck for an Uptown.
How does the shit sandwich taste, Bart?
Serious question:
Does anyone read/like Doug Speirs column. The Free Press seems to really promote him but I don’t get it. He is not funny.
The Freep has been pretty horrible for the last long while. They can no longer brag about their product being on a tier above the Wpg Sun (sheesh!) . I do enjoy Mr. Kives’ writings on occasion, but some of the other chins they lead with… Speirs and Sinclair are almost insulting to read through… pure fluff. And then there’s Lindor Reynolds too.
If I want a decent weekend read I find I have to grab a Globe on Saturday. The Freep’s work week has generally meant Mon-Wed issues are light and stale editions, with better content starting Thurs through Sunday. Jettisoning Sunday just tipped the scales so that there are more days of Freep suckage than days the paper actually informs me well. After a decade or so of home delivery, I’m canceling my home sub Oct 31 and will likely use my laptop for my morning news from now on.
As part of the male demo they are targeting, I do not buy my news, I use this new invention called the Internet. If they decide to charge for the news I will use another site. If they are serious about targeting this age group they need to find a way to make money with their website. I wish them luck.
I agree who does read Spiers? Isn’t a humour columnist supposed to be funny?
you guys sure get wrapped up over a newspaper.
The argument for and against are pretty academic, considering that there’s even an app for lining your bird cage and wrapping fish.
Until the Free Press starts writing content worth reading I will not subscribe, nor would I ever consider buying On7. (I am also part of the coveted 18-35 demographic).
Doug Speirs and virtually unedited NDP government news releases don’t cut it for me. Give me better content written by harder-working journalists and I will consider coming back.