As the print media death spiral continues, we can’t help but wonder sometimes at the lengths newspapers will go to to bring more readers in. The news websites go for clickbait (even the smug, serious ones). But the old-fashioned push to sell hard copy newspapers has been around as long as the papers themselves. Here are some of their favourite ways to get you to buy the paper.

Cross-promotion

One way to expand your readership is to piggy-back off someone else’s audience. Book excerpts are a prime example that work for both parties — author and publicist gets a plug for a newly-released book, while the paper bags some extra readers in fans keen to get a look at the new work. In February, the Daily Telegraph serialised what it called a “steamy” Mills and Boon book on its site for free (to subscribers), while promoting a competition to find the author of the next 50 Shades of Grey.

The cross-promotion extends, too, to getting namechecked by other outlets — newspaper journalists make excellent TV and radio panel guests, while getting their employers a mention to a wider audience. Panels on the breakfast TV shows often feature journalists from News Corp and Fairfax, with newspapers journalists also often filling spots on the ABC’s The Drum and Insiders, not to mention radio networks around the country.

The News Corp tabloids went so far last year as to let the then-cast of Nine’s Today program guest edit its Sunday papers around the country as one big cross-promotion fest for both outlets.

And for the more serious news, there’s always the joint investigations — for example, the regular Four Corners and Fairfax crossover episodes.

Free stuff

Who doesn’t love free stuff? This is one of the oldest tricks in the print business to get the casual reader to pick up your publication. The gifts can range in value and popularity, from movie tickets and calendars, to commemorative coins available only to subscribers.

To mark the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, the “official newspaper” of the event, the Gold Coast Bulletin has been selling commemorative pins with a token from a hard copy of the paper.

Increasingly, the free stuff offered comes as part of a “membership” rather than your traditional “subscription” to the paper — The Australian and the Fairfax papers both offer discounted tickets to events, and special subscriber events designed to make you feel like you’re getting bang for your buck, and are part of a community.

Gimmicks

Possibly the greatest print-only gimmick is the scratch-n-sniff ad. Last year, the News Corp tabloids’ scratch-n-sniff ads for its DVD giveaways smelt like popcorn. And back in 2014, papers around the country ran Coles ads that gave you a whiff of freshly-baked hot cross buns. It’s a novelty tried around the world for similar promotions over the last 10 years — at the Los Angeles Times and the Grimsby Telegraph, to name just two.

Souvenir editions

And for the sentimental among us, a souvenir edition can be hard to go past. Predictably, the Gold Coast Bulletin cashed in on the Commonwealth Games with its own souvenir editions (despite not having media accreditation to even take its own photos in the venues), as is custom for big sporting events.

But it’s not just sport, natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, and fires prompt special editions of the papers (the Top End’s recent cyclone prompted a “souvenir edition” of the NT News).