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Don’t touch that Guide

The Sun-Herald was forced to reintroduce a TV liftout five weeks after dropping one, following complaints from its readers.

Yesterday Fairfax newspaper The Sun-Herald was forced to reintroduce a TV liftout five weeks after dropping one, following complaints from its readers.

Mumbrella reported that the newspaper added an unstapled, 12 page liftout in the Unwind entertainment section, and raised its price from $2 to $2:30.

It follows a single Guide being published and newsagents being expected to supply it on either a Sunday or Monday according to the customer’s preferences.

Last week on its Facebook page Sun-Herald told readers: “We appreciate you taking the time and effort to let us know what you think – and we want to reassure you that your suggestions and comments are being taken very seriously. We are going through readers’ responses as we seek to improve the TV guide so it’s a better reading experience.

“If you prefer a stand-alone TV section The Guide is now out every Monday in every copy of The Sydney Morning Herald.

“But we also understand that the television guide is one of the most important parts of The Sun-Herald to our readers.

“We spent months researching the best way to bring useful TV listings to Sun-Herald readers and during that process we spoke to many readers about what they wanted. We received strong feedback that many readers wanted a comprehensive entertainment liftout that included a 7-day television guide. Hence our decision to launch Unwind – the entertainment guide for staying in or going out.

“Please rest assured we are acting on your feedback and that you will see some improvements to make The Sun-Herald’s television guide more reader-friendly from this coming Sunday.”

Last year TV Tonight‘s Audience Inventory found that a weekly guide in newspapers was the most popular form of print guide. 30% of readers chose it as their preferred guide over a daily newspaper guide (12%) or magazine guide (11%).

But Online and EPG still outranked print guides with the on screen EPG still rated highest at 57% followed by other online guides and the Foxtel EPG.

We still love to circle favourite shows in our print Guides, but more than that we love Guides that are accurate.

It’s nice that editors are reminded readers still value television information and analysis.

Disclaimer: David Knox has previously written TV reviews for The Sunday Age.

11 Responses

  1. The SMH Guide is great. Some of us also appreciate the Radio inventory at the bottom of each page. If there’s nothing on the box, that Brahms Symphony I always wanted to hear is on MBS-FM tonight. Strike up a candle: alternative lifestyle.

  2. LOL. Why would anyone want to buy yesterday’s news on dead trees? I guess taking a tablet into the loo doesn’t quite feel the same. And by feel the same, I mean when you run out of toilet paper…

  3. As most companies move into the digital age, Granny Herald’s current management are totally blind to the opportunities that are screaming for attention.

    The old girl, who seems capable of getting only her knickers in a knot, is being left behind.

    By the way, they raised the price of the SMH to $1.70 yesterday.

  4. @deedeedragons: Yes I do, and I live in Melbourne. I have been buying The Sun-Herald since 2005. You may be interested to find out that The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Telegraph are still available in several newsagents in Melbourne (the availability stemmed from the Victorian Government’s ban on The Age and The Sun publishing on Sundays, so Fairfax and News Limited sent copies of their Sydney papers to Melbourne so people had something to read. The ban ended in 1989).
    I also noticed Fairfax had reduced the Victorian price of The Sun-Herald from $2.60 to $2.30.

  5. The all-channels magazine like in the Sunday Telegraph is my preferred format. And still $2.00 not $2.30 for less. Could this be Gina’s first big decision? Raise the price and cut the TV guide?

  6. Incorporating the TV Guide within an larger section of the paper was just plain dumb. Who makes these crazy decisions? Obviously done without any proper market research. Reversing that decision was a win for common sense!

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