Distribution of the free edition of the Manchester Evening News is to be extended after research found it is helping to reach new readers.

Around 10,000 copies of the MEN Lite are currently distributed in the city centre each day after 4.30pm, and next month this will be rolled out to include parts of south Manchester as well.

New market research conducted on behalf of the Manchester Evening News has shown that its strategy of targeting the Lite at non-MEN readers has paid off, and the traditionally hard to reach audience of 15-34 year olds accounts for 57 per cent of its readership.

It also showed that the Lite had not affected sales of the MEN - with the two per cent of respondents that said they had stopped reading the MEN cancelled out by the two per cent of the sample who said that the Lite had made them start buying the paper.

Editor Paul Horrocks told HoldtheFrontPage that the launch of the Lite had produced much better results than expected.

And, with the improvement made by the 6am edition launched last year, a healthy result in the January to June ABCs has been predicted.

He said: "We're really pleased - there is a real buzz across the company.

"What we've achieved here is to hone in on a new audience. We've found at least 10,000 home-going commuters who in the main haven't been buying the MEN but who enjoy the Lite.

"The research has been very positive and we have achieved three main objectives: reaching a mainly professional ABC1 audience, producing a publication that its target audience clearly like, and minimising the cannibalisation of the MEN, the sales of which have hardly been dented."