Archant has relaunched four of its paid-for weeklies as free titles.

The Royston Crow, Ely Standard, Cambs Times and Wisbech Standard are now delivered free to local households each week.

The move is aimed at providing advertisers with a wider audience, and follows an influx of new residents to the areas served by the four papers.

The Wisbech and Ely Standard and the Royston Crow had all previously sold around 5,500 each week, with the Ely Standard selling just over 7,000.

Now the Royston Crow has a distribution of 12,000, the Ely Standard is delivered to 18,000 households and the Cambs Times and Wisbech Standard have a combined distribution of 48,000.

The changes follows the merger of part of Archant Anglia with Archant Hertfordshire earlier this year to form Archant Herts & Cambs.

Managing director Stuart McCreery said: “The relaunch of these four titles is a significant change for the new Archant Herts & Cambs business.

“By increasing market penetration and engaging new residents in each community, reader interaction has improved and the response from our staff and advertisers has been very positive.

“We are providing market leading editorial content to a wider audience, journalists are benefiting from better response to stories and we are able to focus on community demands the wider audience makes.

“The sister Hunts Post and The Comet in North Herts are two leading free brands that these new free titles hope to emulate.

“It may be seen as a difficult time to be investing in products but this move is one I am really pleased to be announcing.”