The Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association (CSNA) has accused Irish newspaper publishers of having ‘little or no consideration for their retail customers’, after a study found that the number of ‘bulk’ copies available to food and hospitality outlets in Ireland far outweighs that in the UK.
According to the CSNA, of the total number of bulk copies available freely for cafés, coffee shops, pubs and restaurants in Ireland is currently 6,445 daily (February 2015), or 22.7% of the total. In the UK, the food/hospitality sector accounts for just 0.17% of bulk copies.
In addition, Irish hotels avail of 52.6% of bulk copies on a daily basis in Ireland, compared to 20% in the UK.
The study found that the Irish Independent (13.27%) and Irish Times (11.87%) offer the highest percentage of bulk copies on a daily basis - these are also the biggest selling newspapers in the country.
“How can it be considered to be economically viable to load hundreds of parcels containing small numbers of copies and deliver those copies to such establishments?,” the CSNA said in its members’ newsletter last Friday. “The answer is most certainly ‘because we can’.”
Adding that it intended to write to the management of INM to highlight the issue, the CSNA added: “With a reliance of 87% of total sales income coming from retailers, one would have thought that the Irish Independent would be more attentive to the concerns of retailers with regard to the placing of free papers in these sectors.
"On the contrary, this sector is growing in terms of placings, a growth that has indisputable negative effects upon the paid-for sector which is, as we all know, struggling to manage decline.”
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones
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