A “media war” in London led to a 5,000-copy give-away of the Islington Gazette – without hitting the paid-for sales.

The effects of the launch of two new free London papers and increased deliveries of an Islington local free paper had begun to register in sales of the Gazette.

Before then, single-copy sales of newspapers had fallen right across the capital over ten years but the decline in sales of the Islington Gazette had been noticeably slower.

And to date, the development means that sales of the paper across its patch have been maintained at previous levels while the awareness of the paper has increased.

Archant London’s head of circulation Steve Fenton knew that the 50p price of the paper was not a problem. But the challenge was to give away copies without damaging existing sales. The give-away began in November.

Steve said: “Through vox-pops we knew that readers felt they were getting value for money. It was just that they could pick up other titles completely free.

“We were selling 10,000 to 11,000 copies a week and we decided to give away a further 5,000 copies.

“The paper hits the streets on a Thursday morning so by 11am on a Friday we have sold 65-75 per cent.”

The decision was also made to hand out the papers rather than placing them in dispensing bins, partly because of the nature of the Islington Gazette.

Steve added: “People do not view it as a 20-minute travel read. Research shows they are more likely to buy it when nearing home than for travel. Handing the paper out was also a way to gauge reactions.

“With the media war in London, it’s crucial for the regional press to create communication strategies and remind readers of the quality of our titles.

“When it came to the Islington Gazette it was hard not to engage with people – and that was across the whole population.

“The question that most people were asking was: ‘Will you be handing out the paper here every week?’ That meant that they were going to make a conscious decision not to buy it if they could receive it for free.

“Newsagents are very co-operative and we wanted to promote them. We decided on a rolling programme for distributing, staying as far from traditional outlets as possible and moving the locations around.”