The Times launches £2m advertising campaign to promote its new Saturday edition

Thursday, 12 February 2009 12:02

The price reduction forms part of a £2m advertising campaign to plug the new six-section Saturday edition of the Times, which launched last month.

The advertising campaign is expected to include outdoor posters and three weeks of television and radio ads that start today. The TV campaign will see three short ads run over a single break. The campaign will also include distributing free copies of the paper with partners Marks & Spencer, Pizza Express, Picture House and the National Theatre. A News International executive told MediaGuardian.co.uk, "The reason we are doing this is because they are pleased with the relaunch that they want it to be trialled as widely as possible."

The reason behind this move is that News International could lose readers to Weekend FT and the Saturday Guardian if it didn't beef up the Saturday Times. The relaunched paper provoked a big response from readers, with more than 1,000 emails to the paper and the Feedback editor. After the promotion campaign The Times is expected to return its Saturday edition to its current price of £1.50.