When The British Have A Real Newspaper War It’s a Beaut – A Former Scotland Yard Detective Poking Into Trash All Over London, Embarrassing Video Released on YouTube, Ads Aimed at Damning The Other In The Eyes of Advertisers, And Oh So Much Money Bled By Murdoch And Rothermere

Philip M. Stone April 26, 2007

Even though London has 10 daily national AM newspapers all are basically at peace with one another. Staff poaching goes on all the time, once in a while one will cut its newsstand price forcing others to follow, a lot of money is thrown around looking for the elusive exclusive, but basically it’s civilized peace. How boring! But now a battle royal has broken out between the two new PM Free papers and it looks like no holds barred. Now we’re talking!
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How many free newspapers end up here unread?

It’s an almighty battle between very deep pockets.  In the Wapping corner weighing in with allegedly a circulation of some 500,000 papers daily is Rupert Murdoch’s thelondonpaper. In the Kensington corner, with around 400,000 copies daily, is Lord Rothermere’s London Lite, conceived to protect its long time paid-for PM Evening Standard. The result so far after the preliminary rounds has thelondonpaper ahead on points, but London Lite is complaining bitterly to the referee that there are dirty goings-on with thelondonpaper’s audited circulation, and they have released some neat video that surely will raise questions at the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC).

Enter into the ring retired Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Philip Swinburne, formerly with the fraud squad. His mission, which he accepted from Lord Rothermere’s Associated Newspapers, was to bring back the evidence that thelondonpaper’s distribution was not the 500,000 claimed, but in actual fact its vendors were, horror of horrors, dumping undistributed bundles of the paper at night, when all was quiet and no one was around, into large trash containers.

So with a camera crew in tow, we are treated to video of three thelondonpaper distributors in different parts of London handing out newspapers during the afternoon, but as night descends and the commuters have gone home and there are still bundles of papers left undistributed the camera crew catches each of those distributors hauling those papers to large out-of-the-way trash containers and unceremoniously dumping them. After they’re gone we’re treated to the good detective inspector grabbing some of the newspapers out of each of the containers and holding them up so the camera can get its close-up that it is indeed that day’s thelondonpaper that is being retrieved.

Well, you had better believe that Associated Papers made hay with that evidence, especially since thelondonpaper recently increased its advertising rates because it announced its distribution was up from the original 400,000 daily to 500,000. Up goes the video onto YouTube. It’s available also all over the UK web. Associated Newspapers took out ads, aimed at the advertising community, that bellow, “Here’s the proof that supply doesn’t always equal demand. Thousands of copies of thelondonpaper are being dumped on a daily basis. This former fraud squad detective inspector witnessed them doing it in three separate locations on three separate occasions. Now, how much does thelondonpaper charge you for advertising? Detective Inspector Phil might call that daylight robbery.”

News International called all of that “dirty tricks”. Can you imagine a Rupert Murdoch company claiming “dirty tricks” by others? Can’t be so! And, oh yes, News International also said it had pictures of Associated’s vendors doing the same things although truth be told you could not tell from those photos who did the dumping. Anyway, News International said the three incidents were “isolated” and that it had fired those involved. It also pointed there really was no monetary advantage to the vendors dumping the newspapers because they were paid by the time they were working, not by how many papers they handed out.

The next day, after licking its wounds, News International executives came out fighting, accusing Associated of “resorting to dirty tricks”. Ian Clark, general manager of thelondonpaper, said Associated was desperate to protect its Evening Standard whose circulation in the March ABCs was down 18% over the year before, but was up 0.2% over February.

And News International took out its own trade ads, thanking The Evening Standard for alerting thelondonpaper about the 2,900 dumped papers and that the offending distributors have been fired. But then it went for the jugular. “As for the Evening Standard, we understand the desperation behind their crude propaganda. Their newspaper is bought by 29% fewer people than a year ago, which might explain why its parent company, Associated Newspapers, has launched a dirty tricks campaign to destroy competition in the London newspaper market.

“Their aim is to kill off thelondonpaper so they can close its London Lite and give the Evening Standard back its old monopoly. Associated have a long history of dirty tricks whenever their London monopoly is challenged. This time such tactics won’t work”

Point of fact is that thelondonpaper does have a couple of circulation victories under its belt that could help explain its higher numbers over London Lite. Last November Thelondonpaper won a license, with a £1 million ($2 million, €1.5 million) bid, to exclusively give away its newspapers in bins at London’s railway stations, and that propelled its audited numbers to 425,508. And then at the beginning of April it won the license to exclusively distribute its paper in the Canary Wharf business park that has more than 90,000 people working there with the type of demographics that advertisers crave.

But are both sides dumping newspapers? Guardian writer Roy Greenslade, who is the UK’s premier media watcher, told in his blog, “My own anecdotal evidence in the past couple of months calls into question the official audit figures for both titles. I’ve seen piles of papers abandoned on roadsides by the young men and women paid to hand them out. I have witnessed distributors throwing armfuls of copies onto buses (despite protests from drivers) and seen piles left carelessly at bus-stops often blowing across the pavement and then the road. I’ve watched the reams carted away from dump-bins (an appropriate name) at stations at the end of the day. And tube (subway) trains are littered with copies that are often unread. How can the ABC be expected in such circumstances to verify free paper distribution?

Actually it is those left-over newspapers that have to be cleared up by the trash departments of the various London city councils and also the bus and subway systems that may be an even bigger problem for the two newspapers than fighting between themselves. According to the Westminster council that basically controls the central London area, tossed away free newspapers now account for some 25% of all the trash being picked up. It’s an extra three to four tonnes of trash daily, and the council is not pleased with either the mess the newspapers are making nor the cost of tidying it all up. The councils have tried to negotiate with the newspaper companies about picking up at least some of the tab for the extra cleanup but those talks have not gone well. Perhaps trash collection costs were forgotten items in the business plans?

Well now the Westminster Council has had enough of four months of  procrastination and it has issued an ultimatum that if the two companies don’t decide quickly to contribute some £500,000 ($1 million, €740,000) over a two-year period to help pay for the trash clear-up then the council will ban the distribution of their free newspapers on its patch. And it has the power to do just that under the Clean Neighborhoods and Environment Act 2005 passed to especially restrict distribution of free literature that makes a mess on public streets. Other councils, the bus and subway systems also want financial help.

The councils should be grateful to those fired thelondonpaper distributors. At least they threw the papers into dumpsters.

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ABC To Investigate Free Papers Alleged Dumpster Dumping – April 27, 2007

With both London PM free tabloids accusing the other of dumping newspapers that weren’t handed out, the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) had little choice but to open a formal inquiry, although usually it does not so unless it has received a complaint.

Its statement said, “ABC is aware of the allegations and information which has been made public regarding the distribution of the London free newspapers.

“Although to date no complaint has been received, due to the implications that these allegations may have on the certified distribution figures for the London free newspapers, ABC has taken the decision to investigate and review the circumstances surrounding these incidents.

“The publishers are responsible for submitting their data to ABC according to the audit rules. ABC audits the London free newspapers to industry standards agreed by media buyers, advertisers and media owners. The audit comprises a range of tests including monitoring the publisher’s internal compliance process, testing paperwork and audits trails and direct observation on the street of the whole distribution process. “