Sunday Sport hires marketing advisers in advance of a September relaunch - North West Media News

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Sunday Sport hires marketing advisers in advance of a September relaunch

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Wednesday, 18 July 2007

The Sunday Sport, in common with other papers, particularly the tabloids, is facing declining sales, so it’s gearing up for a September relaunch and has recruited a number of regional promotional companies to help it on its way.

Editor Paul Carter and managing director Andrew Fickling, have appointed Brazen, Blue Banana and Blue Monkey: respectively PR, research and sales promotion outfits.

The paper, which is based in Manchester and employs 80 staff, was selling 350,000 copies ten years ago and 200,000 copies six years ago but is now, according to the latest ABC figures released last Friday, selling under 100,000 copies a week.

Carter insisted the paper’s legendary profit margins (based on phone and mobile services) were still extremely healthy and that the 60% of the 80p cover price essentially still covers costs, but he admitted “We are trying to find that magic again.”

The paper’s prime audience is 30 plus men in the C1/D/E socio-economic groupings. Sales are best in London, the North West and Birmingham. Scotland is “ok” said Carter but this is something the team is addressing with the relaunch.

Come September, the print run is to be increased by 40%, cover mounted DVDs will be introduced, a separate Championship/Football League supplement will be published while the Scots will get their own dedicated pull out for the first time.

The cover mounts will be ‘glamour DVDs’ and will initially be attached once a month but should they prove really successful, Carter said they might increase to weekly. This initiative, a first for the UK, is according to Carter tried, tested and successful in France.

Readers can access some of the DVDs for free but should they wish to access certain other parts, they will need to phone and pay for either a segment or pay £8 to entirely unlock the contents of the DVD. Sport Publishing co-incidentally also publishes a number of magazines from its Manchester base including Readers’ Wives, Lads’ Mag and Adult Sport – an uncensored version of the Daily/Sunday Sport.

The Championship supplement will launch in early September, enabling the production team to run through a few trial issues before going live.

The Scottish edition will be edited and printed from Manchester.

In parallel with the relaunch, ads will be zoned in the paper for the first time. The first third of the paper will no longer carry any ads of an ‘adult’ nature, the middle section will only carry ‘mild adult’ ads with the final third carrying the stronger adult ads. The ad department is now entirely based in Manchester following a relocation of the team from Leicester earlier this year.

Carter

Carter said he doesn’t at this stage anticipate any cross-over with the web site but added that once the relaunch is out of the way, he does expect to revisit the issue and that currently Sport Newspapers is leaning towards charging for an on line paper with whistles.

Carter claims he is no more under pressure than any of his rivals at other papers facing sharply declining sales. “However, if we stand still, we’re going to continue diving so we need to do something. If you look at papers like the People and the Sunday Express, they’re in freefall and you’ve got to wonder at their future.”

And if the relaunch doesn’t produce the expected results? “We’ll have to do something radical” said Carter, “probably go entirely free.”

So as we spoke, the focus groups arranged by Blue Banana in Manchester were underway.

Younger males are being targeted and Carter freely admitted the paper will be looking at “stuff the Sun does well.”

This includes Fish & Chip offers and holidays but also trademark raunchier stuff such as Miss Upskirt 2007 with photos provided by Phil “The Dynamo”, a dwarf with a predilection for standing outside nightclubs of a night. Miss Upskirt is being planned for publication on 14 September, when the paper will celebrate its 21st birthday.

It seems a long time since we read about WW2 bombers found on the Moon. The market has arguably moved on and with the likely launch of at least two free sports and entertainment led weeklies in the larger UK cities in the coming months, expect to see the Sunday Sport follow suit.

www.sundaysport.com

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Comments (9)

1 By I'm Sportacus, on 18-07-2007 18:11
No matter how you try and slice it The Sport exists to be a soft entry into the harder (and more lucrative) sex industry.

There's nothing 'fun' about a campaign based around trying to photograph up women's skirts - and as a 'paper' it has always retained an element of exploitation that at best could be described as seedy, at worst potentially harmful.

Any respected comms agency shouldn't go anywhere near it in my opinion - and to think that in presentations and pitches there were probably some young female execs having to gush about what a great, harmless laugh The Sport was and how they'd love the opportunity to help turn it around etc. is quite a sickening thought.

And no this isn't political correctness or a sense of humour failure - its a genuine belief that out of all the 'lads mags' and even top-shelf material in the market, The Sport leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.

Bombers on the moon was just daft - but now the paper is far darker and appears to be staying there, rebrand or not.

Sportacus

On second thoughts - "soft entry", "gush", "bad taste in the mouth"?
ooh-err missus - maybe I should apply to be a sub

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2 By Nobody, on 18-07-2007 18:38
I agree with the comments of Sportacus above. The rag should either drop the porn altogether and become a humorous newspaper (preferable) or stop pretending to be a newspaper and move completely to the top shelf. The content is so misogynistic that the few times I've been unfortunate enough to have handled a copy, I've wondered if it's still 1973. The fact that this sort of crap is still around, and that people (including women) still think it's "just a bit of harmless fun" makes me feel sick.

Having said that, I'm wholly unsurprised that Brazen are involved. It's symptomatic of the way that parts of the NW media industry still live in this little sexist bubble.

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3 By No! I'm Sportacus, on 18-07-2007 23:04
Don't forget Brazen are now next door to The Sport offices so they can pimp out their female staff for upskirt photo-shoots pronto.

Having said that, Pete Burling turned up at the IPR awards a few years back in a skirt.

Maybe The Sport's promotion will be culturally inclusive

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4 By Nigel Tuffnell, on 18-07-2007 23:38
Nobody - what's wrong with being 'sexy'?

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5 By spinal tappist, on 18-07-2007 23:51
I think you meant to say "Nigel Tufnel"

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6 By Nigel Tuffnell, on 18-07-2007 23:52
maybe - i dunno - what are the hours?

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7 By Nina Wheeler , on 23-07-2007 11:07
For those of you too chicken sh*t to say who you really are, why don't you get lives? You all seem to know a lot about the Sport considering you appear too prudish to read it.
It's with outdated opinions like these around that make working with the Sport such a great 'comms' challenge. Some of you should try challenging yourselves.
NINA WHEELER

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8 By mark garner , on 24-07-2007 08:33
Well said Nina. Those that can do, those that can't have cheap pops under aliases. Grow a set of balls those of you who have a prediliction for knee jerk reactions, personal attacks and sixth form politics. Post under your real names.

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9 By peter schevt, on 05-07-2008 10:03
if the sport was a gay paper with the same content there would be no complaints,the moralising bigots and feminazis (who seem scared of sex) only complain where there is heterosexual behaviour

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