Are the pushy antics of London's free newspaper distributors turning you off reading their products?
This blog is prompted by a story by Alex Hannaford in MediaGuardian today about alleged punch ups, racist insults and industrial sabotage (well, drenching opposition papers in water) among rival distributors for the London Paper and London Lite free sheets and the 50p London Evening Standard got me thinking. Is such aggression among distributors actually going to stop customers reading the papers?
A friend of mine, Peter, was offered the London Paper recently, which he politely refused. Then the distributor got pushy and tried to insist. Please! It's not only annoying the reader but its damaging the brand.
A colleague, Lindsey, always accepts the first freesheet that she is offered. She never reads it, just brandishes at all the other distributors she meets on the way to the tube to fend them off.
Would you prefer to fish your free paper out of a bin than have someone hand it to you? It is an option that advertisers, who are really going to decide the fate of these papers, prefer because they think a reader that actually selects the paper is more interested in its content.
Unlike Peter and Lindsey, my encounters with distributors have been positive. But how many of you can say the same?
