Due to the COVID-19 outbreak causing horse racing and sports across the UK to come to a halt, Racing Post made the decision to stop printing their daily newspaper.
In place of the printed edition, Racing Post announced they would be creating a daily, ‘digital-only’ special edition. The digital-only special edition provided full coverage on the UK’s virtual Grand National on 4th April and will continue to offer its loyal readers interviews, features and classics from the archive on a daily basis.
The digital version comprises 10-14 pages and is released at 9 pm each day. The publication time is consistent with the previous digital edition where subscribers could access content before the printed newspaper hit the newsstands the following morning.
Racing Post ‘s subscribers belong to ‘Members’ Club’ where there are two levels of membership – Ultimate and Essential. Both sets of subscribers have been given access to the new digital-only special edition whereas previously the digital newspaper was only available to ‘Ultimate’ subscribers.
In future, and in an effort to add more value to subscribers, Racing Post is hoping to publish some of their books digitally (Racing Post currently have a book publishing arm) to sit alongside the digital edition on web and within their native app
Tom Kerr, Editor of the Racing Post, said “Taking the decision not to print the newspaper was obviously an extremely hard one but we are thrilled to be able to offer our loyal and valued members a new digital version of the newspaper. We’ve worked hard to produce an edition packed full of the fantastic writing and insight our customers have come to expect and we hope that they enjoy it.
“We can’t wait to be back in print, but the digital newspaper is a key part of our subscription package and we’re delighted it has been able to offer readers a taste of their usual paper during these awful times.”
Ross Murphy, CEO at PageSuite, said “We were delighted to work with Racing Post and ensure they can continue providing readers with access to newspaper content, despite the implications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll continue to do all we can to make sure that our clients can take the necessary steps to keep subscribers engaged during this time.”