Home news delivery month return backed by retailers

Publishers involved in or­ganising HND Month last October have confirmed plans are underway to hold a second campaign this year. HND Month saw 1,321 home news delivery (HND) retailers sign up to take part, receiving hundreds of thousands of leaflets containing newspaper subscription offers to give to potential customers. The event was also cov­ered by adverts in regional and national newspapers to promote HND to readers.

A new survey of the participating retailers by publishers was shared with Better Retailing. It showed nearly 60% respondents said the campaign “brought value to their business” such as increased sales, footfall and deliveries. Retailers also gave a positive responses when asked if they would take part in a second event this year. In a sign of strong retailer backing for the scheme, the survey showed 92% of partici­pants that received posters and other material put it to use promoting the scheme, while 97% of stores that received leaflets said they had used them during the campaign.

Nearly half of all retail­ers surveyed said they had provided “incentives” to staff to push the cam­paign, such as a commis­sion on every customer that takes up a subscrip­tion or delivery.

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While retailers praised the campaign, they also suggested improvements, such as smaller leaflets better for display at coun­ters or for posting through letterboxes. Other calls included for preferential newspaper terms for home deliveries (already available on Mail and Guardian editions through PaperRound), a re­peat of the pandemic’s free newspaper delivery vouch­ers, front cover adverts on participating newspapers and additional merchan­dising such as bunting and window graphics.

Better Retailing’s analysis last month confirmed HND Month had a positive impact, with as many as 20,000 new newspaper subscrib­ers added following the campaign, bringing some titles into periods of total subscriber growth.

Andy Law, senior na­tional account manager at Daily Mail Group and one of the lead organisers for HND Month, confirmed conversations regarding HND Month 2024 were ongoing. “HND Month was huge success, based on the feedback received, and conversations have started about what we do for this year, ” he added. “HND Month 2023 was launched within an ex­tremely tight timeline, so for 2024, we want to build on this and deliver a big­ger and better HND event.”

The Fed also praised the results, with national president Muntazir Dipoti telling Better Retailing he hoped the longer planning time in 2024 would lead to strong­er promotional offers from publishers.

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