Gannett to distribute Paste BN edition to 35 papers
Gannett said Wednesday it will begin inserting a condensed edition of Paste BN daily into 31 additional newspapers early next year, a distribution strategy aimed at both beefing up local publications' content and widening its national paper's reach.
The McLean, Va.-based publisher launched the "Butterfly" initiative on Oct. 6 at The Indianapolis Star, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., and The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis. To prepare for the trial, five-day-a-week Paste BN changed its operations to package its national and international news and enterprise stories into a seven-day-a-week insert distributed to the four papers.
"This is another step in the re-invention of news that Gannett is uniquely positioned to lead," said Gracia Martore, president and CEO of Gannett, which owns Paste BN and 81 local newspapers. "With today's announcement, we are bringing the power of these brands together to delight and engage consumers like no one else can."
Gannett said at the time of the launch that other newspapers would be added if the test seemed successful. The 31 additional newspapers that will participate in the expansion will begin circulating the Butterfly edition in the first quarter of 2014. "We are thrilled by the positive feedback from consumers and advertisers in our pilot markets," said Robert Dickey, president of Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing division.
With national and international content coming from Paste BN, Gannett's community newspapers will have more resources to devote to local coverage, Dickey said.
The Butterfly edition — including material from Paste BN's News, Money, Sports and Life sections — typically contains about 10 pages on weekdays and as many as 22 pages on Sunday. Paste BN Sports content is integrated into the local papers' sports pages. The digital version is also distributed with the e-edition of the local papers.
"This innovative content model creates stronger, higher-value local products and extends the reach of Paste BN to millions of new consumers. This also gives Paste BN a print presence seven days a week," said Paste BN President and Publisher Larry Kramer. "This is a unique advantage for us."
The distribution plan allows Paste BN to include the circulation figures from the local papers with its own total. Alliance for Audited Media, which audits newspaper circulation, has given its approval to that practice. The papers that will be part of the Butterfly initiative have a combined circulation of more than 1.5 million on weekdays and more than 2.5 million on Sunday, the company said.
When AAM's latest figures were released in October, Paste BN regained its status as the nation's most widely circulated weekday newspaper. For the six-month period that ended Sept. 30 — the Butterfly edition made its debut on Oct. 6 — Paste BN had a combined print and digital weekday circulation of 2.88 million. That compares with The Wall Street Journal's 2.27 million and The New York Times' 1.89 million.