Someone elses mention of Herald AM on AAM this morning has reminded me of something that's totally baffled me recently. I've started to commute by bus to the city centre for work every morning since June. Previous to that I was driving around the M50 to a suburban business park for work.
Each morning now when I get off the bus on D'Olier street, I'm approached by the Herald AM and Metro distribution people handing out their morning free papers.
What is the point of handing out these papers when I get off the bus and walk the 5 minutes to my office?
I'm hardly going to get a read of the newspaper in that five minute walk, and once I get to the office, I'm hardly going to read those "news"papers over and above any of the proper papers that I can access online over my morning coffee. Plus, I'll get away with reading an online paper while I'm supposed to be working - reading an actual paper would be far too obvious.
Why are these papers not distributed at outlying bus stops, or at Dart stations? Wouldn't they be read much more if you had one in your hand for a 35minute bus or Dart journey? I'm assuming they're not available at Dart stations - they're definitely not at bus stops.
Having worked in London at the initiation of the very successful Metro publication there, the distribution policy there was to have papers available at every train station entrance so that people would read them on their way into work, especially at stations where there were no newspaper shops or vendors.
Is there a reason for this different distribution policy in Dublin? It seems they're not making the best of their opportunities here. Surely the cost of delivering these papers to carefully chosen Dart stations and outlying bus stops would increase their readership immensely.
Each morning now when I get off the bus on D'Olier street, I'm approached by the Herald AM and Metro distribution people handing out their morning free papers.
What is the point of handing out these papers when I get off the bus and walk the 5 minutes to my office?
I'm hardly going to get a read of the newspaper in that five minute walk, and once I get to the office, I'm hardly going to read those "news"papers over and above any of the proper papers that I can access online over my morning coffee. Plus, I'll get away with reading an online paper while I'm supposed to be working - reading an actual paper would be far too obvious.
Why are these papers not distributed at outlying bus stops, or at Dart stations? Wouldn't they be read much more if you had one in your hand for a 35minute bus or Dart journey? I'm assuming they're not available at Dart stations - they're definitely not at bus stops.
Having worked in London at the initiation of the very successful Metro publication there, the distribution policy there was to have papers available at every train station entrance so that people would read them on their way into work, especially at stations where there were no newspaper shops or vendors.
Is there a reason for this different distribution policy in Dublin? It seems they're not making the best of their opportunities here. Surely the cost of delivering these papers to carefully chosen Dart stations and outlying bus stops would increase their readership immensely.