Göteborg: Special weekend editions saved Kristeligt Dagblad
Posted by Emma Lukins on June 4, 2008 at 7:43 AM
The national Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad managed to turn the tide and went from being close to bakruptcy to increasing its circulation by introducing new weekend editions. Editor in Chief Erik Bjerager explained how this was done at the 15th World Editors Forum.
Kristeligt Dagblad is a national Christian newspaper that is published six days a week. It was founded in 1896. In 1995 circulation reached a record low with only 13,000 copies, and about 35,000 readers a day. Today the paper has about 100,000 readers a day and a circulation of 26,000 copies.
Back in 1995 Kristeligt Dagblad had a hard time selling six day subscribtions but needed to attract new subscribers to ensure future circulation. To solve the problem, it introduced new editions on Fridays and Saturdays and offered subscribers that wanted to give up their subscribtions the opportunity to subscirbe only to the Friday edition, or to the Friday and Saturday editions.
Bjerager talked abut how he thinks it is a mistake to look at the newspaper as a mass medium; reading the newspaper is a personal experience. He said that if you are able to establish a realtionship between the reader and the newspaper you will have a much easier time attracting subscribers. And what Kristeligt Dagblad has done to establish that relationship is focus on the core subjects of a Christian paper: ethics, faith and existence, and highlighting them in two new sections in the weekend editions.
On Fridays they introduced a new section called "Life & Soul" where they focus on social issues and stories about relations, marriage and divorce, friendship etc. The also have a widely read column by a psychologist. On Saturdays they have a section called "Books & Culture" where they write about, well, books and culture, but from a Christian point of view.
Bjerager said that his paper has never marketed its special weekend subscription package. Instead, it gives away four week subscritions for free, and then if readers do not wish to buy a full subscription, they are offered the two-day weekend subscribtion. The free subscriptions also helped to caputure poeple who are somewhat skeptical of Christian papers.
The papers strategies have resulted in 19,000 extra copies sold on Fridays and 9,000 extra copies on Saturdays. Today Kristeligt Dagblad has about 40,000 subscribers total.
Kristeligt Dagblad is a national Christian newspaper that is published six days a week. It was founded in 1896. In 1995 circulation reached a record low with only 13,000 copies, and about 35,000 readers a day. Today the paper has about 100,000 readers a day and a circulation of 26,000 copies.
Back in 1995 Kristeligt Dagblad had a hard time selling six day subscribtions but needed to attract new subscribers to ensure future circulation. To solve the problem, it introduced new editions on Fridays and Saturdays and offered subscribers that wanted to give up their subscribtions the opportunity to subscirbe only to the Friday edition, or to the Friday and Saturday editions.
Bjerager talked abut how he thinks it is a mistake to look at the newspaper as a mass medium; reading the newspaper is a personal experience. He said that if you are able to establish a realtionship between the reader and the newspaper you will have a much easier time attracting subscribers. And what Kristeligt Dagblad has done to establish that relationship is focus on the core subjects of a Christian paper: ethics, faith and existence, and highlighting them in two new sections in the weekend editions.
On Fridays they introduced a new section called "Life & Soul" where they focus on social issues and stories about relations, marriage and divorce, friendship etc. The also have a widely read column by a psychologist. On Saturdays they have a section called "Books & Culture" where they write about, well, books and culture, but from a Christian point of view.
Bjerager said that his paper has never marketed its special weekend subscription package. Instead, it gives away four week subscritions for free, and then if readers do not wish to buy a full subscription, they are offered the two-day weekend subscribtion. The free subscriptions also helped to caputure poeple who are somewhat skeptical of Christian papers.
The papers strategies have resulted in 19,000 extra copies sold on Fridays and 9,000 extra copies on Saturdays. Today Kristeligt Dagblad has about 40,000 subscribers total.
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