Murdoch may offer discounts to win readers to Sunday Sun

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, preparing to start a new Sunday tabloid to replace the News of the World, may have to offer steep advertising discounts or even give the paper away for free to regain readers.

Advertisers such as supermarket chain operator J Sainsbury Plc, Boots chemists, General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co withdrew from the News of the World after accusations that employees hacked phones of murder and terror victims and paid police for stories. News Corp shut down the 168-year-old newspaper after its final edition on July 10.

News Corp is discussing a Sunday edition of its best-selling UK tabloid the Sun, which may be introduced as early as next month, said a person familiar with the matter, asking not to be named because the plan isn’t public and a final decision hasn’t been made. The big brands may be willing to come back to a Murdoch Sunday tabloid for a price, said Marc Mendoza, chief executive officer of Media Planning Group, which places ads for companies such as Air France-KLM (AF) Group and Hugo Boss AG.

“Previous News of the World advertisers will be offered large incentives to try the Sun on Sunday for the first few weeks until it proves itself,” said Mendoza, whose company is part of France’s second-biggest advertiser, Havas SA. “They’ll get discounts in the Sun on Sunday and in other titles.”

Advertisers will likely want coverage of the phone-tapping scandal in other media to have died down before they associate their brands with a new Murdoch tabloid, Mendoza said.

For Free?
Daisy Dunlop, a spokeswoman for News International, News Corp’s UK publishing unit, declined to comment. Quashing speculation News Corp is discussing the sale of its UK newspaper assets, Murdoch told the Wall Street Journal in an interview yesterday that such talk is “pure and total rubbish.”

Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with News Corp units in providing financial news and information.

The company may even have to offer the newspaper for free initially to build up circulation and maintain a strong association with The Sun to prevent readers from associating it with News of the World, said Doug McCabe, an analyst at media research firm Enders Analysis in London.

Still, the scandal may have soured News Corp investors on owning newspaper assets altogether, said Alex De Groote, an analyst at Panmure Gordon & Co in London. The company would have to delay a new publication until next year to allow the scandal to die down enough, he said.

‘Crass re-launch’
“It would seem somewhat crass to re-launch a Sunday two to three weeks after closing the previous paper, which is now effectively a crime scene,” said De Groote, who estimates that the News of the World generated annual ad sales of about 40 million pounds ($65 mn).