Sales Claims For New Sunday Tabloid Outlandish

5th October 2004

Sales Claims For New Sunday Tabloid Outlandish

Fairfax NZ Chief Executive Officer Brian Evans has described as ``outlandish’’ claims today by APN’s Sunday Herald publisher Rick Neville that the first edition of the new tabloid sold well over 100,000 copies.

Mr Evans pointed out that the Sunday Herald had given away at least 50,000 copies free of charge.

This contrasts markedly with the strong performance of the Fairfax national Sundays, the Sunday Star-Times and the Sunday News, which have been audited as selling 325,000 copies and reaching one million readers every weekend.

``To claim 100,000 sales as APN did today is plainly misleading.’’

Mr Evans said: ``The claim hardly stacks up when at least 50,000 copies were given away and history shows that an established newspaper such as the Sunday News has taken years to achieve a genuine paid circulation in excess of 100,000.’’

ENDS

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