Online advertising is a “digital fad” that will pass and there is “still no substitute” for a colourful local newspaper ad, according to the managing director of an independent local newspaper in Wigan.
The Wigan Courier has announced this week that it is increasing its circulation by an extra 2,500 copies to 34,900 after “continued requests from advertisers and members of the public”.
The move comes a month after Newsquest closed its Citizen series of free weekly papers in Preston, Blackpool, Lancashire and Morecambe.
Managing director Mark Ashley told Press Gazette: “The Courier is bucking the current trend for regional newspapers, which has seen a year of contraction, circulation losses, job cuts and cutbacks.
“We believe that readers and advertisers want a mass distribution, colourful, effective newspaper that focuses on all the good things about our local Wigan community, and that the current obsession with internet advertising and Facebook will gradually go the way of all the digital fads over the last few years.
“There is still no substitute for a colourful, well-designed advertisement in a truly local paper.”
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