Desmond Plans £50m Ad Campaign To See Off Rivals

Richard Desmond, owner of Express Newspapers, is reportedly planning to launch a £50 million advertising campaign next year, as part of a plan to increase pressure on rivals the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror.

According to today’s Guardian, Desmond is preparing to unveil a nationwide television ad campaign, promotional give-aways and tactical coverprice cutting to promote the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and the recently launched Daily Star Sunday.

After a prolonged period of cost cutting across his national titles, Desmond is understood to have built Northern & Shell into a highly efficient and cash generative business. However, instead of re-investing the profits in editorial or taking them as a dividend, Desmond has reportedly been accumulating the gains to fund promotions on terrestrial and satellite television.

Desmond’s national newspapers have been performing well recently: year on year analysis of the latest ABC results for the six months ending October 2002, shows that the Daily Express and the Sunday Express have seen circulation increase by 2.4% and 8.9% respectively. Meanwhile, the success of the Daily Star, which has improved its circulation by 16.4% year on year, recently prompted Desmond to launch the Daily Star Sunday into the highly competitive tabloid market (see NewsLine Feature: Sunday Star Hopes To Shine).

Desmond is also believed to be contemplating the launch of a free evening newspaper for London early next year. According to reports, the Evening Mail will launch in the first quarter of 2003 and will compete directly with Associated Newspapers’ Evening Standard (see Desmond Plans To Launch New Evening Paper For London).

Northern & Shell: 020 7308 5090

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