A campaign to encourage families to start reading is helping to boost sales of the Birmingham Evening Mail and Coventry Evening Telegraph.

Together with publishing firm Paperview (UK) Ltd, the Trinity Mirror newspapers are currently both running the Great Family Reads promotion, which gives readers the chance to buy books at a discounted price when they buy a copy of the newspapers.

To kick-start the promotion a free copy of 'Wind in the Willows' was given away to every reader at the point of sale, resulting in double-digit week-on-week sales increases for both the Evening Mail and Evening Telegraph.

The second week of the promotion, which saw readers entitled to a copy of 'The Jungle Book' for £3, also exceeded expectations, and almost 15,000 books were sold across Coventry and Birmingham.

Evening Mail editor Roger Borrell: "The response from our readers to the Great Family Reads book collection has been incredible.

"We're delighted to see that our aim of encouraging families to start reading with this collection has generated such massive interest."

Regional marketing director Jane Nugent added: ""This promotion was supported by a heavyweight marketing campaign and we are extremely pleased with the response.

"The level of interest it has generated from readers, local media, local businesses and local newsagents has been tremendous."

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