Conversely, London Lite's rates will remain fixed for six months before rising by 16%. However, media agencies say that, while thelondonpaper has offered a circulation guarantee, London Lite has yet to do so.
Steve Auckland, head of Associated Newspapers' free newspapers division, said: "In our experience, introductory price offers generally stay. At Associated we have only increased our prices as circulation has increased."
However, News International is confident thelondonpaper will give advertisers the response they desire. News International Free Newspapers general manager Ian Clark said: "Metro has a fairly tight, young profile, but ours is even tighter. The more the reader feels that it is their type of paper, the greater the connection, the greater the trust and therefore the greater the response."
Furthermore, thelondonpaper has removed editorial barriers for advertisers, meaning that there can be content integrated ads as well as front-page ads.
Meanwhile, industry experts question whether there is room in the London market for 900,000 afternoon papers, combining thelondonpaper, London Lite and the Evening Standard, in Zone 1 of the capital, indicating the portents for a battle to the death with only one surviving free paper.
MindShare managing partner for press Paul Thomas said: "I think there is a market for about 650,000 copies. Clearly someone is going to lose out out and I think the readers will decide based on the journalism."
Alan Brydon, the former Evening Standard ad sales director, said: "In central London at the moment around 150,000 people choose to take an evening paper. If 900,000 people wanted a paper, why aren't circulation levels of the Standard higher?"
Meanwhile, News International has accused Associated Newspapers' London Lite of plagiarism, claiming that it must have had access to NI's dummy presentation.
In a further move in the London paper war, the Evening Standard has announced a 10p price increase to 50p and a £150,000 Pay Your Mortgage Off promotion in the paper.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
