Media Forum: Do the freesheets work?

A year on, are the freesheets a useful avenue for advertisers?

Should Ealing Studios ever plan a return to its golden era of the 50s, it has a ready-made plot for a new comedy in the shape of the London free newspaper market. Since Associated Newspapers' London Lite and News International's thelondonpaper launched a year ago, there have been accusations of spoilers, alleged dumping and burning of papers, claims of environmental damage and street pollution and, to top it all off, a former Scotland Yard detective poking around in bins with a camera.

Yet despite this stream of borderline farce, the evening freesheets seem here to stay. While sales of Associated's Evening Standard have been hit, raw circulation numbers suggest the titles have been a success in their first year. ABC figures show thelondonpaper distributes an average of 500,563 copies a day and London Lite 400,571.

However, cynics suggest that, especially since NI's decision to hike thelondonpaper circulation by 100,000 in January, there are too many newspapers on the street, and that they are not getting into the right hands. As a result, some buyers have been reluctant to commit large revenues to the papers, even during periods of heavy discounting of ad rates. The National Readership Survey's inability to provide reader research on the titles (due to an insufficient London sample size) hasn't helped the publishers, although readership figures are expected to appear later this month.

So in this context, have the titles justified their existence in their first year? Clearly Steve Auckland, the managing director of London Lite and Metro, is inclined to be positive on this. He says: 'It will take time for both titles to settle in terms of product. At the moment, the two titles are very much head to head, but what we are trying to do is have all our copies away by 7pm/7.30pm and capture the high visibility market. We don't want to get involved in the 8pm/9pm market. We're adopting a purist approach.'

Auckland concedes that London Lite won't be profitable for some years yet, but concludes the signs are encouraging after year one and that advertisers are buying into the title. 'Both groups have deep pockets, News International even more so than us,' he says. 'They're the Tesco and we're the corner shop in this, but there is potential for both products to make a profit.'

Alan Brydon, the head of press communications at Media Planning Group, thinks there is a market for free evening titles, but questions its scale. 'Editorially, both products are perfectly good, and deliver what they set out to do,' he says. 'But I don't think there are 900,000 people in London ...