Archant KOS Media sees 'massive traffic increase' after turning to e-editions

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Switching from weekly printed freesheets to e-editions has seen a "massive increase" in online readership for Kent newspaper group Archant KOS Media, its managing director told Journalism.co.uk.

If you remove newspapers "they'll go and search it out elsewhere", said Paul Stannard.

According to Stannard, "traffic has increased by 50 per cent in three months" since the 'Your' titles, which include Your Ashford , Your Canterbury , Your Maidstone , Your Shepway and Your Medway, were scrapped in January. But scrapping 100,000 print editions has resulted in an overall fall in readership for print and e-editions.

Around 180,000 people a week now subscribe to or access the e-editions via the website, but the 'click-through' rate of the number of readers viewing the e-edition after an alert pops up in their email inbox is less than 30 per cent, Stannard admitted.

It is less than five years since KOS Media introduced the seven 'Your' freesheets, but the company decided to stop printing six of the seven editions in January, six months after Archant bought KOS Media.

The Your Tunbridge Wells title has been retained. "Although in Kent, Tunbridge Wells, which is just 20 minutes from London, has a slightly different view of what it wants from its papers," Stannard explained.

A restructure in December - the month before the freesheets were scrapped - saw eight jobs under threat and resulted in an "three or four less people in the newsroom", Stannard said.

He denied the decision to go online only was due to the cost of printing and distributing the 100,000-a-week 'Your' titles and said he was "very supportive" of the Archant-funded research which resulted in the decision.

He added that scrapping the print editions allowed the company to invest and expand its two flagship titles: Kent On Saturday and Kent on Sunday, both county-wide freesheets, with an anticipated weekly circulation of 150,000 by the next audit.

The 'Your 'titles use PageSuite , technology which was developed for KOS Media and was initially based in their office near Ashford, according to Stannard.

Around 8,000 people have downloaded the iPhone and iPad apps. Since the move to e-edition only, Stannard said the 'Your' titles have expanded from seven editions to 13.

There are other advantages to digit, Stannard claimed: "We aren't confined by print and can bit a bit experimental", explaining that the e-editions allow for the inclusion of video.

Research from focus groups is due to be published next month. Stannard said the findings show that people "really value news, particularly local news, and it is still very important for them, but people's lives are changing and they want more lifestyle and we'll see a lot more of that in the coming months".