Wal-Mart Pulling Free Newspapers?

The Rome Newswire tells us today that Bentonville has ordered all of the area stores near Rome, Georgia to remove all free newspaper racks.

This on the heels Wal-Mart/ASDA demanding (and then relenting) that magazines on its shelves dedicate both advertising and editorial space to the company in every issue. Is Rome incident a fluke or part of a larger, company wide crackdown on media distributed in Wal-Mart stores? If anyone has noticed this elsewhere, write in and let us know.

(The Newswire is asking its readers to call area Wal-Mart stores and request that that the newspaper racks be replaced, and if necessary - go pick up a copy at the East Rome K-Mart, where they’ve “doubled [the] normal weekly drop to handle the additional traffic.")

Wal-Mart Stores Pull All Free Papers [Rome Newswire]:

Since the start of RomeNewswire’s print edition, The Newswire, readers have been able to pick up a free copy at their local Wal-Mart stores.

However, recently the home office of Wal-Mart sent a directive to remove all free news paper racks from the store’s vestibules. In many of the locations, store managers have moved The Newswire inside the store and patrons continued to have the free paper available to them. However recently, the area district manager for the two Rome Wal-Mart’s, along with the Wal-Mart in Rockmart and the store in Cedartown, has directed that the papers be removed all together.

We are asking that our readers contact their local Wal-Mart store and let it be known that they would like to continue to pick up the weekly Newswire paper at the Wal-Mart locations.

You can continue to pick up The Newswire at hundreds of locations around Floyd, Polk and Cherokee County Alabama (including the Wal-Mart in Centre).

For those of you who normally pick up your Newswire paper at the local Wal-Mart’s, we recommend the East Rome Kmart where we have doubled our normal weekly drop to handle the additional traffic.
Here is the contact information for the stores. Please contact the local store as well as the District office.
Thank You,
Jerry Duke
Publisher, The Newswire

*Wal-Mart district office… 706-234-3904
*East Rome Wal-Mart… 706-292-0838
*West Rome Wal-Mart… 706-236-9595
*Cedartown Wal-Mart… 770-748-1636
*Rockmart Wal-Mart… 678-757-8766

Posted by Eric Bull on Tuesday, August 26, 2008

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