UK: promotions aggravating newspaper rivalry

Britain's Audit Bureau of Circulation recently announced that London's The Times was up 4.97% compared to a 4.9% increase of the Kingdom's overall quality newspaper market. These figures were met with disdain by the editor of the Daily Telegraph, Martin Newland, who declared the circulation growth a product of free giveaway promotions. Mike Gordon, commercial director of The Times retorted that the Telegraph had just instituted a free DVD giveaway, which apparently didn't help it beat the Times, who has surpassed the Telegraph's full-rate sales for seven straight months. Gordon called the Telegraph's management out-of-touch saying "They are not prepared to accept the changes going on around the world." Newland boasted that it's the middle-aged white-collar readers of his paper that really matter, that are the backbone of Britain. In all the scuffle, the two papers seem to have let promotions and circulation overshadow the essence of a newspaper: content.

Source: MediaWeek