Local newspapers drop home delivery: Readers will stay, predicts newspaper executive

Local newspapers drop home delivery: Readers will stay, predicts newspaper expert

Local newspaper readers in several places now have to get the paper themselves.

Many local newspapers are now delivered with the small catch that you also have to accept some advertisements. (Photo: © Ida Marie Odgaard, Ritzau Scanpix) Today at 5:01 PM

What happens in the smaller towns, where big media might not report from every day – well, that is among the things many North Jutlanders like to use the local newspaper for.

Also housing prices, obituaries, local initiatives, and much more appear in the local newspapers, which have found their way to the mailbox in front of many North Jutland homes every week.

That is why many were quite fed up when FK Distribution, which among other things delivers local newspapers, announced that you now had to accept some advertisements to get the local newspaper delivered.

In North Jutland, six weekly newspapers are dropping home delivery from November, so readers will have to find the paper themselves.

This could be, for example, at the local grocery store.

Thorkil Christensen is the owner of Aars Avis, where they have given up having the newspaper distributed by external companies.

"We risk that the newspaper we produce on Monday is only on the street for readers on Friday, and that is just too late."

But even though you now have to move a little further than the mailbox, he believes that readers will still open Aars Avis in the future.

"75 percent of all residents in Vesthimmerlands Municipality read our newspaper, and therefore we also believe that there will be demand for the newspaper in the future."

The weekly newspapers that from the beginning of November become pick-up newspapers are Aars Avis, Farsø Avis, Nibe Avis, Vesthimmerlands Avis, Nørager Avis, and Folkebladet Støvring.

------------------

Pick-up works

------------------

In Vodskov near Aalborg, it has long been the case that Lokalavisen Vodskov-Vestbjerg-Vadum does not land in the mailbox once a week.

And it actually works, says Mette Rasmussen, who lives in the town.

"I think it's easier. It's in the shops I go to and the sports venues I visit with my children."

Jan Veiby is also perfectly fine with picking up the newspaper himself.

"I was one of those who took it straight from the mailbox and threw it into paper recycling, but now I actually read it."

And he is certainly not alone in that, says Karin Madsen.

She works at Vodskov Library, where Lokalavisen Vodskov-Vestbjerg-Vadum can be picked up.

"As a library, we experience people coming in and asking for the local newspaper, and among other things wanting to know if there aren't any more, because it has been snatched up."

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.