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The Herald Digital
Source: The Herald Official Press Release
May 4, 2006—The Herald, Scotland's leading quality broadsheet, has launched a subscription-based digital facsimile edition aimed at extending its geographic reach to expatriate Scots worldwide and broadening its online appeal.
The new service, branded The Herald Digital, is provided by NewspaperDirect, the Vancouver-based supplier of digital print-on-demand and online distribution services for newspapers.
Backed by extensive sales and marketing promotion, the launch—on April 24—has already attracted what The Herald's digital media editor Gordon Mack describes as "an encouraging volume" of registrations and subscriptions.
The paper is offering readers a three-day free trial as a taster for one of five tiered payment packages which range from £1.50 for a single issue to under £100 for a full year. The deals provide discounts of up to 50% and more on print cover prices.
"We believe there is growth in the latest facsimile newspapers where sophisticated browsing tools and added-value video and audio plug-ins can significantly enrich the reading experience," says Mack.
"Commercially we are confident that there is sales potential, especially in the corporate market and for targeted publications. But it does need hard work. Facsimile editions don't sell themselves."
The new service was introduced to coincide with the restructuring of The Herald's daily features into a new Monday to Friday tabloid section, and the redesign of many of the Saturday packages, including the award-winning colour magazine.
The majority of advertising-led supplements are to be added to the digital offering at a later date and will be offered free to readers.
The Herald, owned by Newsquest UK since April 2003, has placed no geographic restrictions on subscription to its service.
"We recognise that today we need to make our brand and our content available to any reader wherever and whenever they want to receive it and we felt it was unfair to deny readers the service simply because they happened to live in our main circulation areas," Mack says.
The company is pursuing early approval from ABC for official certification of the subscriptions.
A restructuring of The Herald's existing website, one of the UK's first regional titles to post an internet edition, is now planned. It aims to re-position the web edition which attracts more than 400,000 unique readers a month, as a complementary service to the digital edition, offering unique premium content.
Editor of The Herald, Charles McGhee says: "The convergence of print and other media makes it imperative that we compete at all levels and across all platforms. I believe The Herald possesses a unique and enduring appeal for readers—and I am convinced we have the talent and skills to make it commercially attractive in print and online."
Ends.
Contact:
Charles McGhee
Editor, The Herald
E-mail: charles.mcghee@theherald.co.uk
Phone: 0141 302 7000
Gordon Mack
Digital media editor, The Herald
E-mail: gordon.mack@theherald.co.uk
Phone: 0141 302 7122
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