The Daily Mail sells around
1.85 million copies a day. Its upmarket broadsheet companion the Maily
Telegraph manages around 550,000, making it the most popular of the
Qualities. These are the numbers touted to prospective advertisers to justify
the price of getting their products promoted in their pages. So it was a little
surprising to receive this photo from a Zelo Street regular.
Here are not one, not two, but four stacks of Daily Mail and Maily Telegraph, clearly identifiable as last Saturday’s editions,
still unsold well into the morning. There are literally scores of copies on
view. Perhaps this was taken in the kind of area that proves less receptive to
these titles? Maybe the supermarket concerned does not cater to the
aspirational middle classes?
Well, on both counts, have I got news for you: the
supermarket where the photo was taken was not Asda or Aldi. It was not Tesco,
Sainsbury’s or Morrison’s. It was taken in a branch of Waitrose. And you can’t get more aspirational than Waitrose. Why do
you think that the Mail and Telegraph are so keen to talk about the
likes of Pippa Middleton? It’s partly because she promotes Waitrose.
And the location of this Waitrose branch? It isn’t in
Manchester or Merseyside, and certainly not in any part of the North East. Nor
is it in the far flung provinces of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. It is
right in the heart of what Paul Dacre and Tony Gallagher consider their part of
Middle England: the photo was taken at the Petersfield,
Hampshire branch.
So are the Mail
and Tel selling quite as many copies
as their PRs would like us to believe? You might wish to ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.
4 comments:
We are local to Petersfield and regularly use the Waitrose in the town. A very nice town and store it is too. I cannot remember when it started but for the past few months they have been dishing out a free copy of the Mail or Telegraph on weekdays to all holders of the My Waitrose card. My wife who is our food shopper sometimes takes a Telegraph and tells me that picture could have been taken on any day of the week.
The stacks of Mails and Telegraphs are because of the on-going offer for Waitrose card holders to get a free copy at the checkout.
Like giveaways on aircraft, it is a well-known way for publishers to boost their "sales."
The Waitrose link up has been running for more than six months, no sign of it ending soon. See http://www.waitrose.com/home/mywaitrose/newspaper_offer.html
I was in the York branch of WHSmith yesterday. They offered me a free copy of the Daily Mail. I told them they'd have to pay me to get me to take one
There's been an offer at WH Smith airports and stations (possibly High St for all I know) for over 2 years. Buy a Telegraph and get a 500ml Evian for free. Given the price of the Evian at airports the obvious thing to do if you want some is pick up the Telegraph and get that scanned instead - and hey presto, one more "auditable" sale of the Telegraph.
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