UK and Irish Star newspapers to be sold side by side in Ireland ??

ooh

Found this:

http://www.shelflife.ie/article.aspx?id=2504

Would all readers know the difference, and would it result in the Irish Daily Star losing readers?

I'll bet that the rest of the UK editions (Mail,Mirror & Sun) will follow.I see that the Irish Daily Mirror has upped its price from 95 c to €1.00 this week.

IRE60

If that’s classed as newspaper ‘marketing strategy’ then it’s farcical and reprehensible.

Express own half of Independent Star Limited, the joint venture vehicle used to publish the Irish Daily Star. Now they have decided to (further) cannibalise sales of its own product through the introduction of the UK version of the Daily Star!

What about all the millions that have been spent over the years investing in the Irish Daily Star and its branding (like it or not). Now it’s going to be sat beside and confused with a paper that will not sell here.
Express (aka Desmond) is trying to have his cake, eat it and then try a bit of someone else’s. The Irish Daily Star is called exactly that so that the Daily Star can include its circulation numbers in its own figure. As opposed to the Mirror/Record which are broken out separately. So, is he now going to get the numbers of the two papers? I wonder how the ABC feel about that?

To put this in context – there are currently 13 papers to choose from in the morning, now effectively 14. It’s a further weakening of the market and the papers in it. Importantly, the 100 odd people employed in Dublin have to worry about their future.

IRE60

zorro2566 wrote: »

I'll bet that the rest of the UK editions (Mail,Mirror & Sun) will follow.I see that the Irish Daily Mirror has upped its price from 95 c to €1.00 this week.

The misguided opinion is that the "UK version" of a title will sell as much - even come close to the edition with Irish input - it's madness.

They saw the sales rise on the Daily Star Sunday after it closed. The Express – not ISL, substituted the UK Sunday paper to this market. Printed in the UK and even used a different distributor for it here. On the back of a rise in sales they thought that the UK version was doing well and was acceptable to the Irish Sunday Buying public. Therefore we’ll do the same in the daily market.

The ABCs are out this Friday and we'll see how the Daily Star on Sunday (UK ed) is holding up this month.

Here’s the form for the Sunday in the last 4 months:
26k (May)
23k (June)
45k (July - NoW closed),
32k (August).

My money is on 28k or south of it for September – back to where they were in May. And, if it is, then the whole rational for the introduction for the UK daily version is flawed and wrong and will only cost money in the long run.

The sales of the Sunday rose from 28k to about 50k and ego led idea, that the UK edition will do, is madness. Its on the back of the closure of a paper that sold 113k ever Sunday.

I wonder how well the UK editions sold here before they changed over to the Irish versions.I remember the News Of The World in its broadsheet format, when I was growing up, with its stories of London gangsters and swinging vicars.

IRE60

IRE60 wrote: »

If that’s classed as newspaper ‘marketing strategy’ then it’s farcical and reprehensible.

Express own half of Independent Star Limited, the joint venture vehicle used to publish the Irish Daily Star. Now they have decided to (further) cannibalise sales of its own product through the introduction of the UK version of the Daily Star!

What about all the millions that have been spent over the years investing in the Irish Daily Star and its branding (like it or not). Now it’s going to be sat beside and confused with a paper that will not sell here.
Express (aka Desmond) is trying to have his cake, eat it and then try a bit of someone else’s. The Irish Daily Star is called exactly that so that the Daily Star can include its circulation numbers in its own figure. As opposed to the Mirror/Record which are broken out separately. So, is he now going to get the numbers of the two papers? I wonder how the ABC feel about that?

To put this in context – there are currently 13 papers to choose from in the morning, now effectively 14. It’s a further weakening of the market and the papers in it. Importantly, the 100 odd people employed in Dublin have to worry about their future.

If Desmond is that hungry for business here then I wonder why he didn't arrange to have Channel 5 put on the Irish Sky epg to attract all the Big Brother fans here and make money through the phone voting system?

IRE60

I think they asked for too much money!

IRE60

zorro2566 wrote: »

I wonder how well the UK editions sold here before they changed over to the Irish versions.I remember the News Of The World in its broadsheet format, when I was growing up, with its stories of London gangsters and swinging vicars.

I believe that in the 60's the UK papers did well here (Mirror exp) - they didn't have Dev and McQuaid types looking over their shoulders and some of the stories were "salacious" to say the least (in comparison)

When was the UK version due to go on sale,haven't seen it anywhere yet or has it been postponed?

stargazer 68

Dont really see the difference. If you get the Irish Mail most of the ads etc are for UK products and in Stg - Star wont be any different. Same old crap just Irish crap!

IRE60

Dovies wrote: »

Dont really see the difference. If you get the Irish Mail most of the ads etc are for UK products and in Stg - Star wont be any different. Same old crap just Irish crap!

The Mail don't carry UK Ads! Or was that said simply said for embellishment?

zorro2566 wrote: »

When was the UK version due to go on sale,haven't seen it anywhere yet or has it been postponed?

Was supposed to be 17th (Yesterday). I didn't really notice - I'll have a scour later. @zorro2566 what's your location - big smoke or otherwise?

monument

The UK and Irish editions of the Star are quite different, even more so than the Mail -- and even the Mail differs a good bit.

IRE60

IRE60 wrote: »

The Mail don't carry UK Ads! Or was that said simply said for embellishment?



Was supposed to be 17th (Yesterday). I didn't really notice - I'll have a scour later. @zorro2566 what's your location - big smoke or otherwise?

I live in Sligo,looked in Easons and 2 other newsagents,just for curiosity sake!

IRE60

I thought as much - I'd say the strategy (no offence to the good people of the West and North West) is to have easy hits. Dublin, Cork Galway maybe etc. I'll see if I can get a copy and scan the 'new' masthead.
Then again they have have caved to the JV pressure and abandoned the plan altogether

Have the UK editions arrived here yet or has it been cancelled?

easychair

zorro2566 wrote: »

I wonder how well the UK editions sold here before they changed over to the Irish versions.I remember the News Of The World in its broadsheet format, when I was growing up, with its stories of London gangsters and swinging vicars.

I thought they spscialised in "Vicar 'n choirboy" stories.

icdg

zorro2566 wrote: »

Have the UK editions arrived here yet or has it been cancelled?

Now, I saw a Daily Star with a blue masthead and the words "English Edition" one day last week in the Dart Link Newsagent at Connolly Station. I've seen it nowhere else and haven't seen it since. It may simply have been a test market that day.

easychair

icdg wrote: »

Now, I saw a Daily Star with a blue masthead and the words "English Edition" one day last week in the Dart Link Newsagent at Connolly Station. I've seen it nowhere else and haven't seen it since. It may simply have been a test market that day.

That sounds a little like a new story about Iraq where there appeared, in the papers, lots of boxes of ammunition which had, printed on the sides, "Property of the Iraq Government". Until you stop to think and ask why the Iraqw government would, helpfully for the british press, print that in English on the side of their ammunition.

I've never seen, say, any irish newspaper on sale in ireland proclaim itself as the "Irish Edition", and even the "Irish Daily Star" doesn't say "Irish Edition". Having lived in London for some time, I've never seen "English Edition" printed across any newspaper on the stands.

icdg

easychair wrote: »

I've never seen, say, any irish newspaper on sale in ireland proclaim itself as the "Irish Edition", and even the "Irish Daily Star" doesn't say "Irish Edition". Having lived in London for some time, I've never seen "English Edition" printed across any newspaper on the stands.

That's not comparing like with like - these newspapers are not sitting on the newsstand beside a newspaper with an (almost) identical logo and layout, but mostly different content. But since you live in London, you'll probably be no doubt aware that the Sunday Independent is sold in many shops there. Except that its no longer called the "Sunday Independent", but "Ireland's Sunday Independent". And that has a completely different logo (and name) from the British newspaper, "The Independent on Sunday".

The issue as I understand it is twofold:

(a) The Irish Daily Star and the Daily Star (in its domestic edition) share an almost identical logo and layout. The only difference is the word "Irish" in the masthead.
(b) In Ireland, Express Newspapers want to sell the Daily Star alongside the Irish Daily Star, but are distributing it through a different distributor. This means that if newsagent staff confuse the two (because of (a)), and send the wrong returns to the wrong distributor, the newsagent concerned won't be refunded.

Hence the blue masthead and the words "English Edition". Incidently the opposite happened in Northern Ireland. Up there its the Irish Daily Star that changed its masthead to green and calls itself the "Irish Star" whereas the UK version uses its regular masthead.

I saw the Daily Star English Edition again today in Centra Westland Row, so I guess it is on sale here now.

I haven't seen it in the Sligo area,I am also looking out for the 'i' paper here as well which only comes into Easons now and again.

IRE60

According to the ABC’s out today, the UK edition of the Daily Star (Blue top) sold 680 copies per in November (in the Republic)

That may not seem like a massive amount given the Moring market is about 600,000 copies in total per day.

So, to focus the mind – that volume equates to €300,000 at the till every year.

My local Supervalu in Sligo has started selling it,€1.40 cover price seems expensive for a UK edition and not good value in comparison to the Telegraph or Guardian.

IRE60

It is; it was a deal done between the IRE side of the JV and the UK side - the paper had to be the same price as the current Irish Edition so as not to completely cannibalise the Irish Sales.
Having said that the Blue Top version (UK) sold nearly 700 copies here in November all at the expense of Irish Sales i'd suggest.

dublinman1990

I'd suppose looking at comparing of sales british tabloids and broadsheet newspapers sold in Ireland, Is there a general consensus that broadsheets sell much better then them?

IRE60

Really, in this market (and regardless of the gra thumping) there is really no imported tabloid - bar perhaps the Blue Daily.

all the other tabloids have decent basis here so its not print and dump any more. In terms of the split - tabloids (and I mean red-tops - not tabloid in format) is about 40% of the market in the morning and up to 45% in the Sunday when the NoW was alive

bpb101

I Dont see how they could do this as AFAK there are more stricter laws regarding print media in Ireland.

bpb101

Also this may be a way to introduce just 1 paper. Have them side by side until people don't know the difference and then just have one. They would save a fortune.

IRE60

bpb101 wrote: »

Also this may be a way to introduce just 1 paper. Have them side by side until people don't know the difference and then just have one. They would save a fortune.

Never happen - we're not that dim a people!