News publishers explain cut-off time extension process following retailer concerns

After retailers claimed recent cut-off time extensions had cost them newspaper sales and put strain on delivered copies, publishers provided Better Retailing with a guide to how extensions are decided.

Speaking on behalf of news publishers, Roger Clapham, head of supply chain & systems Guardian News & Media defended the move as vital to protecting reader trust and support for printed copies, allowing as up-to-date coverage of late breaking news and sports as possible to make it into morning editions.

While unable to provide the data requested by Better Retailing at the moment, including sales impacts and a breakdown of extension requests accepted and refused, Clapham promised to discuss ‘specifics’ later this year.

Clapham’s explanation of cut-off extensions in full:

Cut-off extensions are employed to cover national events in full in our print products and to meet readers expectations, and so that publishers can maximise their coverage of specific events in our print products.

It would not be acceptable for readers across the UK, or indeed just in the more far flung corners of the country, to be served a product that supposedly reports the news without the proper coverage of such national events – especially for those titles who are heavily reliant on sport coverage – hence the necessity of cut-off extensions.

Many extension requests are considered each year by NMA publishers – any one publisher can propose an extension, and collectively publishers will then discuss that proposal and declare whether they would be in favour of it or not – if all publishers agree in favour of a proposal, we will go to wholesalers to discuss the matter further.

All extension requests are considered thoroughly, and are only passed by publishers and wholesalers if it genuinely believed to be in the interests of overall sales levels both on the day in question and in the longer term. 

It’s absolutely necessary to have the most up to date content we can in our print products to meet reader’s expectations and to maintain consumer buying habits – this is increasingly important as print sales decline.

Our stated guidelines on events that will trigger extensions are as follows – these were first put in place some years ago now but remain true (although please note exceptions may occur):

National Extensions:

• Friday night & Saturday night England mens and womens football games.
• Champions League final (Saturday night game) if featuring an English team.
• General election or national referendum.

South-West region only extensions:

• FA Cup and Champions League quarter and semi final games featuring an English team that go to extra time.
• Europa league quarter, semi, and final games featuring an English team that go to extra time.
• Both of these are conditional on the games going to extra time and will not be in place should those games finish in normal time.

Other:

• England mens and women’s football games in European Championships or World Cups may qualify for extensions depending on circumstances, as may certain Olympic events featuring star British athletes, and Six Nations rugby games.
• Parliamentary votes and political events may also require extensions when planned and when the news agenda makes an extension necessary – even if it’s just the regional SW type.
• Death of the queen / major royal or public figure – extensions are considered in such an event (and there was an extension when the queen died) but the need to be on sale ASAP is also paramount – print editions following these events can be big sellers. 

Domestic and European Club football games – and international matches too (on weekdays) – that finish before 10pm may often see a publisher request an extension and yet be denied by other publishers. This year alone we have refused a number of these.

Premier League games on a Friday night also have to be managed within publishers’ standard production / edition structures as we don’t believe there is the justification for any sort of cut-off extensions for them – and as such some areas of the country are served without coverage in certain titles – but when it’s an international competition or similar it’s a different matter.

Publishers aim to make arrangements with wholesalers and inform retailers and the trade at least 2 weeks in advance, if not considerably longer, but sometimes the news agenda means that we have to react to developing events and plan in extensions at short notice.

We do understand the concerns raised by retailers and we are hugely grateful for the efforts that they go to with our products – especially the HND element that we know is heavily impacted by any cut-off extensions or lateness. 

We know the retail trade shares their customers with us and they work hard for them – we do appreciate that – however publishers have to operate these cut-off extension arrangements from time to time.