“WHERE can I buy the paper version of the Morning Star?” is one of the most common questions we are asked.

We get requests for lists of retailers and one or two of our more technically advanced readers and supporters’ groups are wishing to map this information and make it available on social media pages.

Every week we do receive reports advising where the paper has been available for sale. It is a moveable feast. The logarithms rules used by wholesale reduce copy that isn’t sold after so many weeks and this copy is either moved to another retailer or dropped. Many retailers only stock enough copies for regular customers and don’t have any for display.

Before the pandemic, a big part of the circulation work was to promote the paper and make it available by working with wholesale carrying out rolling penetration exercises.

This came to an abrupt halt with the pandemic, our availability was reduced by 50 per cent and hasn’t picked up since. This is partly due to the permanent change to hybrid working and the double blow of paper costs increasing.  

Only this week we have been advised that the cost of newsprint has increased by 4.33 per cent and this has been passed on to us with immediate effect.

What is the answer to the question? The Morning Star is potentially available at every retailer that sells newspapers. There is no risk to the retailer in stocking the paper as we are fully sale or return, the same as all other national newspapers.

Ask the retailer you wish to use to stock the paper or contact us at circulation@peoples-press.com and we will sort this for you.

We are available at most Martin McColls shops and many Co-ops. This year we will be returning to penetration exercises, and we will ensure to advise through this column when and where we are doing this.

This year we intend to continue to support picket lines by providing the paper for free and we are gearing up for mass distribution on February 1 for the TUC day of action and the NEU strikes. See the advert in today’s paper for more details.

On yesterday’s letters page, there was a call for the paper to be at Glastonbury. Coincidentally I did have a conversation with a reader on this very subject at the recent Campaign for Trade Union Freedom conference and if they would like to get in touch with me let’s see if we can move this forward.