Breaking News Online ‘Helps Print Sales’

Websites which feature breaking news are helping affiliated newspapers to increase sales figures, according to an editorial manager.

Publishing group Newsquest operates a web-first strategy with its daily titles and spokesperson Margaret Strayton has claimed that this policy is enabling newspapers such as the Swindon Advertiser and Oxford Mail to improve print sales.

Strayton told Press Gazette: “It was our intention to grow sales with our web-first strategy and it is fair to say that our websites are actually helping.

“We have found we have had some huge successes with reverse publishing, particularly when there have been tragic incidences where people have been killed in car crashes or there has been a murder.”

She added that the web coverage of breaking news is also helping print titles to attract a younger audience: “They have seen something on the web and like to pick up the paper to confirm what they have seen.”