Newspaper refuses to print free property letting ads

You know you’ve come up with a revolutionary idea when a newspaper group refuses to print your adverts.

Following the West Midlands launch of www.propertymatch.com, a free property letting website, Northcliffe Newspapers has refused to publish ads in any of its publications promoting the service, forcing propertymatch.com to spend more of its adverting budget online!

It seems that residential property letting agents have a very cozy relationship with Northcliffe, who decided it was not in their ‘commercial interests’ to upset this relationship by advertising a free alternative.

The ad space was booked in the Tamworth Herald, the Lichfield Mercury, the Sutton Coldfield Observer, Walsall Advertiser and the Great Bar Observer.

But when the artwork for the ads was sent over Northcliffe refused to print them! You can see some of the banned adverts here.

The effect of the Internet on the newspaper industry has been well documented.

So it is ironic that when so many titles are losing ad revenue to digital media, Northcliffe should force a business, willing to spend on print advertising, to go online.

The Newspaper Society was consulted by Northcliffe to check if this anti-competitive stance was legal, even though it is clearly not in the interest of its readers.

However they confirmed that newspapers are at liberty to print or rather not print what they like!

But the good news is that propertymatch.com is already shaking up the property letting world. Agents will potentially be forced to do more than simply find a tenant if they want to keep landlords’ business and their lucrative fees.

For more info contact : propertymatch@frienddigital.com