Senior executives from multiple retailers including Waitrose, WHSmiths, and Co-op mingled with a range of leading Symbol and Independent retailers and colleagues from the National Federation of Retail Newsagents.
Introduced by News UK Chief Operating Officer David Dinsmore, the Summit focused on the continued retail power of the newsbrands category (worth £1.8bn in sales last year1). It also brought together a range of speakers in an agenda which shone a spotlight on the innovative ways retailers can utilise the loyalty of newspaper consumers, and deliver more revenue in-store.
News UK Director of Retail Sales Neil Spencer says: “Our message to retailers is clear: our readers are your shoppers. Over 5.3 million transactions everyday include a newspaper2 – and newspaper shoppers are big spenders, generating an average weekly convenience spend of £223. We know that 75% of newspaper buyers purchase at least one other item when they buy their paper4, and when retailers place newspapers strategically, they can see growth in adjacent products by an average of 17%5.”
The News Retail team identified a raft of reasons why news is still a big deal for retailers:
61% of consumers trust traditional newsbrands – the highest trust levels since 20126
14.1m people read a print newspaper every single day7, and 900k of these are subscribers8
83% of newspaper shoppers would walk away from a shop that didn’t stock their favourite title, 48% of would buy elsewhere9
The News Matters summit saw speakers including The Times Retail Editor Deirdre Hipwell, The Sun Consumer Editor Dan Jones, Spar (UK) MD Debbie Robinson, as well as experts from retail consultancies including Bolt Learning, Foresight Factory and Localistico.
