Is the Good Pub Guide right to charge 200 a year for inclusion
The Pub Good Guide for many years has been responsible for publishing reliable and consistent content for pubs and inns across the UK and for free. Free that is up until now.
Although the publication is not free to buy, so there is a point to be made that a product is being sold off the review of other businesses. However this point is not raised here simply because printed publication sales numbers are reaching all time lows whilst readers migrate to internet based publications.
From 2012 the Pub Guide will be charging an annual subscription for listing, reviewing and features pubs in the guide.
This has caused an outrage for many pub owners if not for one reason only, they have to put their hand in the wallet yet again to pay to promote their pub venue.
If a publication has been providing a free service for many years the chances are it has been subsidised for doing so.
Times have changed, the digital media age combined with the information age combined with technological advancement means the New Media Age is maturing very quickly. In business terms this simply means the way a business puts it’s message across to the people it wants to spend money with it has to do it differently.
Or put another way, the customers are not looking at what they previously did to decide where to go and spend their money.
Print costs have not come down but advertisers have migrated to the internet. It hasn’t happened over night so why are pubs crying unfair for a cost that is not massive given the potential returns.
One Country pub in Oxfordshire according to the Daily Mail reporter Valerie+Elliott claims the reference in the Good Pub Guide can mean an extra £30K a year in money coming in from visitors from outside their comfort ‘locals’ zone.
The reporter who picked up the story seemed to have been talking to possible known thieves. One person she interviewed clearly said he would flick through the publication but had no intention of paying for it. So how will he get his grubby paws on the shiny new edition of the Good Pub Guide I wonder, maybe there is a copy in his local pub!
A keen pubgoer Ian from St Albans, who often flicks through the guide, was shocked to learn pubs had been asked to pay. He said: ‘I’ll certainly be very dubious and suspicious about the guide. I’ll look at each entry with a critical eye, I certainly wouldn’t buy a copy.’
Why someone paying to be listed in a directory compared to be listed for free should effect the way they are viewed is somewhat mind boggling. Surely somewhere reviewed is reviewed objectively. If there are special claims made that are not true by the publication because pubs are paying then that’s a different story altogether.
The story here is about pubs still not grasping that the World has changed and the customers that once came to their pub have changed too. Even The Good Pub Guide admits that consumer demand makes the printed version difficult to produce without incurring resources it simply doesn’t have. If you can’t do it don’t and let someone else do it.
There are several good pub guides that are constantly reviewed and up-dated by the respective publishers in association with pub owners whilst all the pubs pay for the privilege to do so.
So why do ‘some’ pubs feel they are owed free advertising and marketing no other business expects free marketing and free advertising. As much as business owners try to get it for free the effort put in is mostly energy wasted on identifying channels that work and just pay the money.
If the pubs reviewed by the Good Pub Guide are contacted after anonymous visits and told they are being put in the guide because they are a great pub surely that’s enough to say yes and ask what the expected returns on advertisng are. It’s how most respectable pub guides work. And how businesses assess their marketing.
Should Pubs have to pay to be in the Good Pub Guide?
Is the Good Pub Guide really the bible for all UK pubs?
Ironically since drafting this there have been replies to the article wriiten and published by the Daily Mail.
EG,
The Good Pub Guide is not the bible for pubs as claimed, that accolade goes to CAMRAs Good Beer Guide which is a far superior production and is based on democratic voting by a membership of 129,000 and any member of the public can put forward a pub for consideration. No charges for landlords, never has been, never will be. The Good Pub Guide is publication for those that want a pub with no guarantee on the most important thing beer quality.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041555/A-write-Good-Pub-Guide-That-200–landlords-revolt-ransom.html#ixzz1Z2nmbTv1
We contacted Neil Kelso, who runs the Victoria in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, a fixture in the guide for the 17 years, is among those who have refused to pay. Neil wasn’t around but Graham backed up Neils views along with pointing out his pub is consumer focused and that’s why they customers keep coming back and not because they read about it in an offline printed pub guide.
Social Media such as Facebook is also having an impact with consumers and these are all things they are keeping an eye on.
The views Neil made during his interview with the Daily Mail were intriguing ‘It really is pointless to pay to be in a guide that is supposed to be driven by consumer opinion. There is a principle at stake here. I really feel pubs are being held to ransom over this.’
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