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Could old-fashioned SMS texting be a more reliable alternative to fickle social media algorithms for publishers?
That’s the theory of Subtext, which was founded in 2019 within US publisher Advance Local’s tech incubator Alpha Group. This year it will send an estimated five billion text messages.
Subtext operates in 200 countries and works with a variety of media companies, artists, political candidates and sports brands.
US publishers using Subtext include: the New York Post, Forbes, Washington Post, Axios, Conde Nast, Gannett, The New Yorker, Page Six, CNET, Punchbowl News, The Hill, CBC, Hearst Newspapers, Buzzfeed, Pitchfork, Vox, PBS, McClatchy, Morning Brew and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
They use the platform to drive traffic, engage subscribers, reduce churn and even drive affiliate revenue.
In the UK the platform is less well-known, although Subtext chief executive and co-founder Mike Donoghue told Press Gazette: “You’ll see a fair amount of international expansion for us in the media space in the not too distant future.”
“When we conceived of the idea of Subtext, we took a look at – for media companies and artists and creators – the amount of time and money and love and effort and resources that went into building up these big audiences on social channels only for a lot of those same companies to come to the realisation that they were renting the relationship with their audience, as opposed to owning a really meaningful direct line of communication,” Donoghue said.
[Previous Press Gazette platform profiles have included: Bluesky, Whatsapp Channels, Snapchat and Factiva.]
Alpha Group initially looked at email but decided it was “already really crowded”, with Donoghue pointing to the likes of Beehive, Ghost, Substack, Lead and Tiny Letter (which closed down earlier this year).
In addition, he said, email “doesn’t feel all that personal” compared to texting and its efficacy recently “has been waning”.
“Click through rates are down, open rates are down. The ability to monetise them subsequently is down. So we have a lot of clients that will use text as an alternative to email newsletters, with the added benefit – and I think this is cool – of leveraging the bilateral nature of the communication, meaning you can send a message to all of your subscribers and ask a question.
“So like who is your favourite political candidate, or who’s going to win the football game this weekend, or whatever it’s going to be, your audience can respond to you one on one, and you can pull them, you can create participatory experiences for them.”
Donoghue also said email could be affected by AI assistants providing summarised versions of people’s inboxes. He described an “AI-driven distillation and race to the bottom in terms of quality of content”.
Conversely, Donoghue said, texting still has an average open rate of 98% and Subtext has a 32% clickthrough rate which he called “markedly better than email”.
Meta-owned rival Whatsapp is still a smaller player in the US messaging market, where it hit 100 million monthly active users (almost a third of the population) in July.
But in the UK Whatsapp is the most popular messaging service according to Ofcom, which said in a report last year it had been used by 76% of adults in the previous three months and that it was the main online communication service of 65%.
As a result some publishers have been driving engagement using its Channels and Communities functions which, respectively, allow publications to broadcast articles to any user who subscribes to their feed or to set up groups of up to 2,000 members to share stories and information.
Mirror and Manchester Evening News publisher Reach last year claimed an open rate for messages shared through Communities of around 90%.
Donoghue argued that Subtext has “a couple of meaningful differentiators” from Whatsapp.
Whatsapp’s Communities tab, he said, is “relegated to the back end of the app itself because it creates a lot of static and I don’t even really think that Meta knows how they want to use it at this point”.
In addition, he said, Subtext users own all of their data and can take it to another platform or plug it into another use case whereas Meta owns user data gathered on Whatsapp.
Donoghue said: “Meta, at any time, could change the rules and decide you spent all this time and money to build up this audience in Whatsapp and now you can only talk to 10% of them or you can only talk to 5% of them. So it’s a reskinning of any other social algorithm.
“The other thing I would say, and this is based on real world experience, but Whatsapp if you do it at scale can be a very expensive proposition. SMS isn’t cheap, but Whatsapp messaging at that sort of scale tends to be pretty pricey.”
Sending SMS messages at scale is “deceptively complicated”, according to Donoghue. Delivering thousands of messages at once requires a relationship with the phone networks and the phone number sending them needs to be registered.
Subtext has a dashboard through which clients can compose messages and add emojis, links, audio and GIFs and choose who to send them to, meaning potentially just a particular zip code or country. It also means people can reply to the messages, with their responses appearing on the dashboard, without creating an unwieldy group chat situation.
“Let’s say the alternative is building up a really big list of phone numbers and then from your phone trying to send a text message to all those people,” Donoghue said. “It turns into a group chat where you have 10,000 people talking all at once and it’s hard to follow the thread.”
Subtext offers two revenue models: publishers are more likely to pay a licensing fee to use the platform with additional costs relating to the total number of messages sent in a month. This model is scalable, Donoghue said, meaning large publishers pay more than tiny outlets with a low number of subscribers.
The second model, which is more popular with creators or other sole practitioners like individual journalists, is a paid subscription model like newsletter platform Substack. For example the personality might charge $10 a month and share a cut of that revenue with Subtext. This is a similar model to Substack, which UK local long-read publisher Mill Media has just decided to leave because the platform’s 10% revenue cut would mean the publisher losing more than £100,000 next year.
“It’s proven to be really popular with creators because it creates a financial annuity and an audience that they can own versus having to monetise social platforms through, like, brand sponsorships, which could be really fleeting, and it has a drag on your community,” Donoghue said.
Subtext has done a deal with News Revenue Hub, a US non-profit that works with newsrooms to help them develop sustainable revenue models without paywalls in an attempt to keep quality information free and accessible to all. The deal gives a 50% discount on use of Subtext to more than 100 newsrooms that are in a paid relationship with News Revenue Hub, whether through the use of their fundraising software or their consulting services.
News Revenue Hub chief of staff Sarah Bishop Woods, who previously used Subtext when she worked at Vox Media, told Press Gazette why texting is attractive to their publisher partners: “News means something different today. It’s much more engaged in a person’s life. It’s much more a service than just a broadcast…
“We know that traffic declines to websites have been ongoing and there’s some expectation that changes with artificial intelligence and SEO declines that it might be more difficult for people to discover news in the same habit that they’re used to discovering news over the last decade. But habits change, and we need to change with the times, instead of against them. And we’ve always encouraged our newsrooms to develop a deep and loyal relationship with the people they serve. A lot of that product can be, you know, newsletters or events, really smart and strategic social media distribution, but increasingly, it also means literally going reaching someone where they are.”
But she also warned: “When we’re thinking of audience diversification, SMS texting with tools like Subtext is really important but it does not diminish the importance of doing on the ground, community engagement as well.
“It’s something that creates a whole picture, but it’s certainly not something that you can remove something else and expect to have success. So we’ve really been encouraging our newsrooms to develop a whole strategy instead of piecemealing ideas.”
Caitlin Petrakovitz, senior digital editorial manager and director of messaging experiences at Gannett, told Press Gazette the USA Today Network is using Subtext in different ways “from SMS sports focused groups to local weather alert groups and beyond”.
This year USA Today launched Your Vote, a free text group via Subtext that promises to “help you cut through the noise of TV ads and spam calls and talk about how this year’s elections will impact you”.
Petrakovitz said: “With nearly 5,000 current subscribers, we aim to inform people in a more personal and authentic way, answering questions in real time directly from our reporters and receiving feedback from readers that helps improve our coverage.”
Here are some specific use case examples:
Donoghue noted that many people do not sit all day in front of a computer and might miss breaking news updates.
“If you wanted to break that news on X [formerly Twitter] or something, you can share that, but it means, one, that user needs to be on X, two, the algorithm needs to decide that it gets delivered immediately, and, three, they need to be part of that audience cohort that’s actually going to see the message,” he said.
“Whereas with text messaging, for example, it’s going to get delivered to 100% of the audience within less than a minute.”
Texting is a resilient tool that can be used to get information out even during internet and power outages, according to Donoghue.
More than 8,000 people signed up to receive updates on curfews, food and school openings from McClatchy titles Miami Herald and Bradenton Herald or Gannett’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune when millions were left without power due to Hurricane Ian in Florida in 2022.
Donoghue said: “SMS is a really vital communication tool to those users and because it operates without an internet connection, it can be a really important way to keep people safe and keep them informed. Whereas email newsletters would not be able to do that. The general website, social, would not be able to do that.”
Donoghue also raised the example of LA Taco journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray who primarily covers the unhoused population in Los Angeles and has a text group of about 100 people sharing information about services they might need.
“He doesn’t have 100,000 subscribers, and it’s not a commerce use case, not making a ton of money off of it. But what he does is communicate really crucial updates…” Donoghue said.
Of the potential for subscription-based businesses, Donoghue said: “In this scenario, maybe you have a paid digital offering and the ability to text with individual journalists or to receive texts on a subject that is really of interest to you is a value add, and the goal there for media companies, for publishers, is to differentiate their paid subscription offering.
He added: “It’s also meant to engage what we would call normally zombie subscribers, so people that sign up for a subscription, they don’t come to the site every day and read stories, so they’re not getting the requisite value, and it’s really only a matter of time until they remember that they’re paying for it, and then they cancel. So it’s a churn reduction effort. It’s a subscriber engagement effort.”
The Washington Post told Press Gazette its longest project on Subtext has been Texts with Tumulty (pictured, top), through which opinion columnist Karen Tumulty shares updates with her most engaged readers (dubbed Tumultexters) while she’s on the 2024 US presidential election campaign trial, and occasionally answers their questions.
A Post spokesperson said: “We’ve seen great success by building a solid core community in the thousands of ‘Tumultexters’, with a high engagement rate of people opening and engaging in these snackable updates. Highlights from Karen include her insights on Super Tuesday and on-the-ground at the conventions, with updates continuing through the election.”
According to Subtext, USA Today newsletter The Short List sends a headline and link to the full read each day and found that text message subscribers spend longer on the articles.
It can also be used to help with acquisition: Donoghue said for example media companies could make it free to sign up for updates about big tentpole events like the Olympics or the US election in the hope of converting users into paying subscribers.
Donoghue described e-commerce as an “emerging popular use case”.
The likes of Wirecutter at The New York Times, Forbes and CNET which have large affiliate businesses put out messages like daily product round-ups and flash sales, he said.
A Buzzfeed case study on the Subtext website states: “Buzzfeed Shopping used Subtext to great effect during the holiday shopping rush, learning from subscribers about what products were on their holiday wish list. Subtext helped them gain valuable audience feedback and increase final conversions and overall customer satisfaction.”
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This past week, Israel massively escalated its attacks on Lebanon, killing 32 and maiming over 3,000 in so-called “pager attacks” (e.g. a textbook war crime), and killing 558 people, including 34 children, by dropping over 2,000 bombs in 24 hours and unleashing a fresh set of bombings in Beirut on Friday, flattening several residential buildings and killing hundreds more. The scenes of carnage are staggering, hospitals are overwhelmed, families are running for their lives, people are justifiably scared of all electronic devices, and terror permeates Lebanon. This was, by far, the deadliest week in Lebanon since the Lebanese Civil War ended 34 years ago.
But, rest assured—influentital Western media outlets tell us—Israel was only dropping bombs on Lebanese people and exploding their devices in a coordinated terrorist attack in order to bring about peace. The escalated violence, we’re told, is actually a means of de-escalating the conflict. In the wake of the attacks, without a whiff of skepticism, both The New York Times and The Guardian were quick to parrot the Israeli government and military’s self-serving justification; that is, that they are massively ramping up their war on Lebanon not because they want to kill and humiliate a designated enemy, but because they want to compel the militant group Hezbollah into a “ceasefire” or to “withdraw” its forces.
Chief among those buying this convenient talking point is Patrick Kingsley of The New York Times. After allowing “ex” Israeli officials to echo this line without pushback for several days, Kinglsey skipped the middleman and just parroted the line himself in a September 23 “analysis,” writing:
Israeli officials had hoped that by scaling up their attacks over the past week — striking Hezbollah’s communications tools, and killing several key commanders as well as Lebanese civilians — they would unnerve the group and persuade it to withdraw from the Israel-Lebanon border. The officials believed that if they increased the cost of Hezbollah’s campaign, it would be easier for foreign diplomats, like Amos Hochstein, a senior United States envoy, to get the group to stand down.
Kingsley takes for granted that Israel’s goal with these acts of war is not to encourage more war but to simply push Hezbollah into a ceasefire at their Northern border—nothing more. Such a premise is so squishy and nebulous as to be meaningless, yet still hard to falsify. It also defies the basic tenets of military strategy and historical precedent. What we saw this week were not “defensive” actions taken with the objective of peace and getting Hezbollah to step back and stand down. The objective is surrender and calling it peace, which is tantamount to saying, “We’ll have peace after I kill you and control large parts of your territory.”
Israel is bombing Lebanon to achieve a military goal. It is not bombing for peace, it is bombing to control the terms of capitulation.
Israel is most likely attempting to militarily occupy Lebanese territory, as it did from 1985 to 2000. So yes, if Hezbollah simply hands over Lebanese territory—just like if Hamas unilaterally surrenders and allows Israel to occupy Gaza uncontested—then indeed there would be “peace” in the sense that Israel will have used extreme violence and human suffering to achieve domination. Again, this is a feature of winning a war, and it has been a feature since there’s been war, but Western commentators today are trying to rebrand the long-established terms of war with the vocabulary of peace.
If Hezbollah or Palestinian militants attacked Israel in the same fashion right now, killing 558 people, including 34 children, in one day, one wonders if Kinglsey would have taken at face value that they only did so reluctantly with the hopes of forcing a peace deal, compelling Israel to grant them a Palestinian state, or securing an agreement from Israel to never bomb Lebanon. The answer is mostly likely not. There is a subtle but effective mode of propaganda at work here: It’s just taken for granted that the US and Israel only engage in wide-scale violence as self-defense, as a tool to achieve peace, as a last resort. US and Israel’s enemies, on the other hand, whether they be Palestinian militants or Hezbollah, are assumed to be violent for the sake of violence. They are assumed to be ontologically sadistic, with no strategy beyond mindless death.
This isn’t to deny that Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel—rockets that, according to Hezbollah, were fired in solidarity with those being bombed and starved in Gaza, and that still constitute a fraction of the attacks Israel has launched on Lebanon since October 7. Yet the former is always painted as the aggressor—and Israel is perennially, by definition, a purely defensive rational actor.
NPR’s report from September 22 allowed Israeli officials to run with the “bomb to de-escalate” line with zero pushback. The report gave Israeli officials the last word, paraphrasing Amir Avivi, a “retired Israeli brigadier general,” and telling listeners that “Israel was seeking to force Hezbollah to withdraw with these ever intensifying aerial attacks… Israel is basically putting in front of Hezbollah a very clear message, either you withdraw or it’s a full-scale war.” Maiming thousands and killing over 600 people in one week is apparently not an act of a “full scale war,” just penny ante messages from Israel, truly a reasonable and measured actor simply looking to de-escalate, signaling they want peace.
“Escalation suggests Israel gambling on bombing Hezbollah into ceasefire,” Dan Sabbagh, Defence and Security Editor at The Guardian, headlined his equally credulous piece published on September 24. “What is now unfolding is an Israeli strategy of military escalation against Hezbollah,” Sabbagh writes, “premised on the risky belief that the militant group can be bombed into a ceasefire before fighting in Gaza ends.”
“Bombed into a ceasefire,” again, is a concept so vague as to be meaningless. In principle, all war is pursuant to some eventual “ceasefire” in the sense that one side will capitulate once the other party achieves its military goal, thus ceasing fire. But this is not how the concept of launching large-scale attacks killing hundreds and maiming thousands is typically framed. It is only put in “peace” terms when done by a US/UK ally.
Pearl Harbor was designed to compel a “ceasefire” from the US and allow oil to flow back into Japan, but framing it this way would have been considered bizarre, insensitive, credulous, and—above all—extremely fatuous. A similarly Orwellian framing, of course, has dominated the fake “ceasefire” coverage with respect to Gaza. For months, Israel has successfully branded its repeated demand for unconditional surrender of Hamas and other militant groups as a “ceasefire offer.” The term has lost all meaning, and now, demands of total capitulation on pain of continued bombing by Israel and the slaughter of hundreds a day are presented to confused liberal readers in the West as magnanimous olive branches.
“War is peace” is a popular cliche in reference to Orwell used to mock deceptive language like this. So when The New York Times and Guardian adopt, more or less, this exact phrasing unironically, it doesn’t bode well for Western media’s ability to accurately capture how extreme, dangerous, and wanton Israel’s latest escalation in violence is.
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HOMEOWNERS could get free or cheap energy-saving up-grades to their homes and slash up to £3,334 a year off their bills.
Energy bills are set to rise again on Tuesday when regulator Ofgem’s new price cap takes effect.
The average household paying by direct debit for dual fuel will see a £149 annual increase, or about £12 a month.
But making your home more energy-efficient can pay off.
The average power bill for a three-bedroom house with an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of G is £5,674 a year — but the same house with a D rating averages £2,340, says property site Rightmove.
Homes with good insulation and LED lighting typically have higher EPC ratings, with A the best and G the worst. But around 55 per cent of UK housing is rated D or below.
Charles Roe, mortgages director at trade body UK Finance, says: “The UK has some of the oldest, least energy-efficient housing in Europe.
Upgrading our homes is a huge challenge, with key barriers being lack of confidence among homeowners and costs.”
Harriet Meyer looks at five simple home improvements that could cut your bills and sources of funding for your upgrades . . .
SAVE UP TO £340 A YEAR
THIS could save £340 a year for a detached home and £180 in a mid-terrace house, says the Energy Saving Trust.
You can do it yourself with mineral wool rolls if your loft is accessible.
According to Which?, loft insulation is around £20 for a 100mm-thick roll, covering about 8.3 square metres. Hiring a pro for an average semi could cost around £950.
The EST’s Joanna O’Loan says: “An uninsulated home loses about a quarter of its heat through the roof. If your insulation is less than 150mm, top it up to 270mm.”
Some energy firms offer free loft insulation through the energy company obligation scheme.
SAVE £120 A YEAR
UPGRADING your windows with A-rated double glazing could save around £120 a year on energy bills for the average semi-detached property, reckons the EST.
But be prepared to fork out around £15,000 to get this done.
If money is tight, a more affordable alternative is to buy ready-made secondary-glazing film online for about £10.
Use a hairdryer to shrink it to fit your frame.
You could also fit a layer of glass or plastic inside your frame and do this work yourself.
Get a few quotes if getting an expert to do the work.
SAVE UP TO £280 A YEAR
IF your boiler is more than ten years old, it may be less efficient and it could pay off to get it replaced.
Efficient A-rated condensing boilers could save up to £280 a year if you live in a mid-terrace house and are replacing a G-rated boiler, according to the EST.
If you do not qualify for the government assistance, getting a new boiler installed is likely to set you back around £4,000.
SAVE £100s A YEAR
PUTTING draught-proofing around your windows and doors could save you £35 a year, says the EST.
You can buy a cheap brush draught excluder online to fit under your front and back doors.
For internal doors, try rolled-up towels, old tights filled with clothes, or get a second-hand draught excluder on eBay.
If you have an unused chimney, block it with a cheap inflatable chimney balloon or DIY with old pillows. This can save you another £50 a year.
Don’t forget to plug other draughty spots such as floorboards, loft hatches and wall cracks too.
SAVE UP TO £75 A YEAR
REMOVING your old halogen light bulbs and replacing them with energy-efficient LED bulbs is one of the simplest ways to reduce your bills.
Light-emitting diode bulbs use significantly less energy — up to 90 per cent less than standard bulbs.
According to the EST, replacing all the bulbs in your home with LEDs could save you up to £75 a year on your energy bills.
You can buy basic ones for as little as £1 to £3 each.
SIDNEY and Elaine Regan are saving £200 a month after making energy-efficient changes.
Their energy bill doubled to over £500 a month because their boiler was getting old – so they invested in a new one, costing £5,000.
Retired care home receptionist Elaine said: “The bills were cheaper in winter after the up-grade. We’re gradually making the cost back.”
In addition to their Worcester Bosch combi boiler, the couple had a smart meter fitted in their three-bedroom terrace in Borehamwood, Herts – at no extra cost through their energy supplier, Octopus.
Elaine, 67, added: “We can now watch our usage and see what makes a difference.”
Taxi driver Sidney, 77, and Elaine have also made smaller changes, such as running the dishwasher less often, using draft excluders, and fitting LED light bulbs.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has pleaded not guilty to five counts of criminal offences, including bribery, wire fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.
Wearing a dark blue suit, Adams arrived in federal court in New York for a brief hearing to enter his plea.
“I am not guilty, your honour,” he told Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker with a straight-faced expression, according to reporters in court.
The 64-year-old was indicted earlier this week on allegations that he accepted illegal campaign funds and thousands of dollars in luxury travel benefits from Turkish businessmen and an official in exchange for his influence as mayor.
Adams has denied any wrongdoing and said the public should withhold judgement until he makes his defence.
“I follow the rules, I follow the federal law, I do not do anything that’s going to participate in illegal campaign activity,” he said at a news conference.
Adams gave a thumbs-up to reporters as he entered court on Friday morning.
He was released on bail. Judge Parker ruled that Adams cannot talk to witnesses about the facts concerning the case, though he can discuss business or private family matters with them, according to US media.
His lawyer, Alex Spiro, told reporters outside court that he would be filing a motion to dismiss the case next week.
“The entire body of evidence is one staffer,” he told reporters. “What you have not heard, is that that staffer has lied, and the government is in possession of that lie.”
If convicted, Adams could face up to 45 years in prison.
He has rejected growing calls from members of his own party to resign.
The former police officer was elected to lead the most populous US city nearly three years ago with a promise to be harsh on crime.
Prosecutors say Adams’s misconduct began in 2014, during his time as Brooklyn Borough president, and carried on during his election campaign for mayor and while in office.
In the 57-page indictment, Adams was accused of pressuring New York City Fire Department officials to approve a Turkish consulate building without a safety inspection in exchange for benefits such as discounted flights, luxury hotels and meals.
Prosecutors say he also misused $10m (£7.4m) in public funds.
He is accused of using straw donors – a scheme that a person or entity uses to evade campaign finance limits – to take in illegal foreign donations and matching them with city funds that were supposed to be for small-dollar contributions from residents.
The mayor is due back in court on 2 October.
Adams has insisted he will stay in office while the case plays out, despite calls from Democrats at the state and federal level to resign.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams. She has said she needs time to review the indictment to “see what’s embedded with this”.
Adams can also be ousted from the mayor’s office by a so-called “inability committee”, which would likely include at least a few city officials who oppose him.
Adams’s arraignment comes as the federal government carries out a number of probes into his administration, which has seen a wave of resignations in recent weeks.
The police commissioner, the health commissioner and the mayor’s chief counsel have all left office as well as the schools chancellor, David Banks, who had his phone seized.
I read with some surprise the piece by Amy Kazmin and Susannah Savage about coffee price hikes (“Italians in a froth over cappuccino bill after coffee bean prices hit record high”, Report, FT Weekend, September 14) and would like to highlight a few points.
When it is stated that Italians drink “some of western Europe’s least expensive coffee”, it should also be emphasised that in bars, Italians — or at least the majority of us — consume very low-quality blends from untraceable lots, often prepared with dirty, poorly maintained machines, leaving only a burnt aftertaste on the palate.
It’s worth noting that every year there are numerous police interventions imposing fines and sanctions on the owners of these “convivial coffee bars” for irregularities in coffee management.
This is to say that paying €1.20 for a cup of this type may certainly be a fun way to start the day, but it represents a price that is completely out of line with the intrinsic value of the product being consumed.
Alessandro Lusi
Helsinki, Finland
A MAJOR high street discounter has apologised for closing a branch after it was open for just one year.
The store in Maidenhead, Berkshire will close permanently next month due to issues surrounding the lease of the building.
Poundland’s store on Maidenhead High Street had already closed temporarily earlier this week after water damage caused part of the ceiling to collapse.
Despite this being fixed, the budget retailer has confirmed that the store will shut its doors forever in mid October.
A spokesperson for the company said: “I’m afraid we’ve been unable to secure an agreement with our landlord that would enable us to keep the store trading in Maidenhead.
“We know this will be disappointing to customers and we’re sorry we’ll be closing on 18 October.
“It goes without saying we’ll be doing all we can to look after colleagues that work there.”
Poundland had moved in to the building last year after the company stepped in to take over a number of Wilko shop leases, following the latter’s collapse.
Maidenhead High Street has also seen other casualties in the losses of both its Clarks and Barclays stores.
Clarks shut its doors on the street in June this year while the Barclays branch closed for the final time in May.
Poundland had undergone an expansion last year when it took over 71 ex-Wilko stores after the retailer fell into administration.
Since then however, several have closed down, including in Ellesmere Port, Galashiels, Scotland, and the Sailmakers Shopping Centre in Ipswich.
On top of this, in August a Poundland store in south Macclesfield closed for good.
A month before that, the discounter pulled down the shutters on a store in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, after taking it on from Wilko.
Despite this, earlier this year the retailer pledged to revamp 150 stores by end of August with new signage, flooring, lighting and ranges.
It also aimed to have staff areas made over to make them better places to work.
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
The high street has seen a whole raft of closures over the past year, and more are coming.
The number of jobs lost in British retail dropped last year, but 120,000 people still lost their employment, figures have suggested.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed that 10,494 shops closed for the last time during 2023, and 119,405 jobs were lost in the sector.
It was fewer shops than had been lost for several years, and a reduction from 151,641 jobs lost in 2022.
The centre’s director, Professor Joshua Bamfield, said the improvement is “less bad” than good.
Although there were some big-name losses from the high street, including Wilko, many large companies had already gone bust before 2022, the centre said, such as Topshop owner Arcadia, Jessops and Debenhams.
“The cost-of-living crisis, inflation and increases in interest rates have led many consumers to tighten their belts, reducing retail spend,” Prof Bamfield said.
“Retailers themselves have suffered increasing energy and occupancy costs, staff shortages and falling demand that have made rebuilding profits after extensive store closures during the pandemic exceptionally difficult.”
Alongside Wilko, which employed around 12,000 people when it collapsed, 2023’s biggest failures included Paperchase, Cath Kidston, Planet Organic and Tile Giant.
The Centre for Retail Research said most stores were closed because companies were trying to reorganise and cut costs rather than the business failing.
However, experts have warned there will likely be more failures this year as consumers keep their belts tight and borrowing costs soar for businesses.
The Body Shop and Ted Baker are the biggest names to have already collapsed into administration this year.
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