In an article run by the 18,000-selling Journal this week, the paper claims advertisers had been in touch after old classifieds began to appear in the newly launched Northcliffe title Stroud Life.

The article in the Newsquest-owned SNJ said: "The SNJ contacted a random 16 car advertisers who confirmed they had not contacted Stroud Life and were surprised to see their old SNJ advertisements running in the new weekly title.

"Further investigation has also shown that classified advertisements for furniture and household items which appeared in the SNJ several weeks ago have also been appearing in Stroud Life.

"The advertisers contacted by the SNJ confirmed they had not placed any advertisements with Stroud Life and many had already sold the items earlier in the year through the SNJ."

The research showed that many of the items re-listed had actually already been sold.

News & Journal editor Sue Smith said: "We were very surprised to discover our ads appearing in Stroud Life.

"It is not the usual practice of an established newspaper company.

"If a paper is unable to sell genuine advertising, surely the decent thing to do is to lower pagination?"

She said that despite several attempts to contact senior staff at Stroud Life's advertising department no one was available to comment.

Stroud Life was launched by Gloucestershire Media in March as a 64-page news and property magazine distributed on a part-paid, part-free basis.

Editor-in-chief for Gloucestershire Media, Ian Mean, would not comment on the claims, but said: "We are very pleased with what we are doing at Stroud Life.

"For the first time, people in that area have a choice."

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