The London Paper beats free rival

The paper is distributing 30,000 more copies than London Lite

The London Paper, News International's rival to freesheet London Lite, is continuing to win the fight for London's afternoon readers.

The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures for the free-sheets showed The London Paper beat its Associated Newspapers rival.

It had 425,000 copies distributed, 30,000 copies more than the London Lite during the month of November.

Evening Standard circulation dropped 74,000 year-on-year in November.

The London Paper's editor Stefano Hatfield said the circulation figures showed the paper was tapping into an audience not served by London's sole paid-for evening paper.

More forceful

"London's a huge city full of young, affluent consumers, readers... and they simply weren't being served by the existing media available to them in the afternoon," he said.

Associated Newspapers' Steve Auckland said The London Paper's sellers were more forceful in the way they marketed the paper.

"I think they are pushing the copies a lot harder," he said. "You can see them pushing copies through windows at 9pm when you're going over the bridge at Westminster - it's not what we're about."

The Evening Standard's circulation dipped to 272,448 copies in November, down from 281,015 in October, a drop of more than 3.3%.

In October, the first full month where The London Paper and London Lite were in competition, The London Paper distributed nearly 5,000 more copies than its Associated Newspapers opponent.