There’s good news for The Beano this week, which has seen a sales uplift of around 25% after a free sampler was made available to The Mail on Sunday readers on 6th April 2014 and as a digital version to Mail Plus subscribers which guest starred TV star and survival expert Bear Grylls.
“The Beano saw a 25% sales uplift in its April 12th issue which succeeded the sampler,” explains DC Thomson Head of Circulation (Magazines) Iain McKenzie. “In addition to this, we have also seen a boost in subscriptions with around 1,400 additional subscribers signing up.”
The sampler issue of The Beano saw Dennis the Menace engage Bear Grylls to help in the search for his missing dog, Gnasher.
The special issue also gave readers an exclusive first look at a map of Beanotown using an app which allowed readers to ‘blipp’ between the print edition and beano.com where the map is hosted. On Sunday 6th April, beano.com saw an elevation in site traffic of almost four times its average site visitors, 70% of those visits were new visitors. The website has also maintained a 100% higher than average visitor rate since 6th April 2014.
The Beano Editor-in-Chief Michael Stirling said, “The sampler was part of an ongoing four week campaign, where our readers helped us search for Gnasher after he disappeared from The Beano. It’s been an exciting way for us to engage with new fans and the sales and website traffic increases are a fantastic result. We’re just happy Gnasher is back in The Beano where he belongs. Reuniting him with Dennis was the biggest success of the campaign! We’ve gained new readers with each new weekly issue, and it really goes to show that The Beano is still everyone’s favourite comic.”
DC Thomson Head of Advertising (Magazines), Andrew Williams added, “In such a challenging marketplace this result sends a positive message about the strength of The Beano brand to advertisers.”
• Find The Beano online at www.beanotown.com
The Beano © 2014 DC Thomson
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Digital Comics, Featured News
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