Paper deliverers ‘put at risk’ by a Daily Record promotion

A row has broken out about a joint Daily Record and Sunday Mail cash promotion which newsagents claim could put the personal safety of newspaper delivery boys and girls at risk.

The Mirror Group-owned Scottish newspapers are giving out “Money Bags Scratchcards” – envelopes which may contain a cash prize of up to 100 in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20 or 100.

The paper claims that up to 10,000 of prizes are being handed out weekly through the promotion.

John Hendry, the Daily Record’s general manager newspaper sales, advised newsagents before the start of the promotion on Saturday, to hand out the cards from their tills.

However, newsagents representatives claim that they are losing customers who are annoyed at finding envelopes are not inserted in their newspaper. The alternative is to give the envelopes to newspaper boys and girls, which puts them at risk.

“The main worry is for the children doing the deliveries,” says David Henderson, Regional Manager of the Newsagents Federation in Scotland. “Some newsagents have decided not to deliver the money bags and have lost customers as a consequence.”

Marketing Manager Steve McLaughlin stresses that newsagents were told to give out envelopes from their tills.

“We have had a huge lift in circulation,” says McLaughlin who maintains that the two papers have sold an additional 100,000 copies on the back of the promotion.