In a radical move that is likely to shake-up the UK travel newsletter market, Cheapflights.co.uk is offering free deal listings to industry advertisers in its weekly newsletter.The newsletter is currently the leading independent UK travel news newsletter with over one million subscribers.

In this ground-breaking industry development, Cheapflights’ Newsletter editors will now consider deals submitted by any reputable travel industry advertiser.  Subject to the deals being really compelling, they will be included for free.  Alternatively, advertisers can book a free “Exclusive Content” position by providing time-limited exclusive offers such as free seats, a time-limited discount or entry to a competition.  In addition, and as a significant bonus, the advertiser will not be subsequently charged for any leads referred to them from the newsletter. Cheapflights will also continue to offer paid-for graphical advertising placements including banners, skyscrapers and MPUs, which have proved highly effective for its travel partners

As a neutral site that does not sell travel deals but which daily publishes over 1.5 million updated deals from a Who’s Who of the travel industry,  Cheapflights.co.uk has always been a consumer champion.  The free newsletter and this new initiative are further evidence of Cheapflights’ commitment to its users.

Rob Passmore, Cheapflights’ Commercial Director comments:
“In line with our independent status, our team of newsletter editors will have discretion to select the very best deals each week without the bias or distraction of having to consider who has paid for advertising space and who has not. With no inventory of our own to promote, we can publish the best value deals for our subscribers to view.  This is in marked   contrast to newsletters linked to commercial sites who often offer “Handpicked” deals from their own sales inventory.”
He added:
“In offering free newsletter advertising, we aim to make the Cheapflights newsletter the ‘must read’ consumer travel email and thus to command a massive and loyal user base. Our goal is to offer Cheapflights’ users the very best independent newsletter travel round-up of deals, sales and news from across the travel industry.”

David Soskin, CEO of Cheapflights commented:
“We believe this bold new initiative will benefit our newsletter subscribers by giving them once a week access to an even wider source of selected deals.  This will also provide a significant add-on value for existing Cheapflights advertisers.  We also hope that it will attract new advertisers to the internet.  Cheapflights introduced the pay per click model into the UK in 2000 and, benefiting from this cost-effective advertising model, it is estimated that last year our travel partners sold £1 Billion worth of deals which had been referred from Cheapflights’ sites.  “
——-