4.45pm UPDATE: As many of us suspected, the claims by News International to be distributing 500,000 copies of thelondonpaper and Associated to be giving away 400,000 copies of London Lite every weekday look to be rather exaggerated.
Look first at this video footage of thelondonpaper being dumped by some of its distributors. Sure, it was shot by Associated, but that doesn't detract from the substantive fact: dumping is endemic to freesheet distribution in the capital and, quite possibly, it's systematic.
Stephen Brook reports on the methods Associated employed to ensure the filming was authentic and credible. It comes as no surprise to me.
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 on to 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 trains are littered with copies that are often unread.
How can ABC be expected in such circumstances to verify free paper distribution?
I didn't think much of the News International's initial response to Associated's release of the film, claiming that its distributors wouldn't do anything like that because they are paid by the hour and not by how many they give away. Why should that factor stop distributors from dumping?
There may be more to News International's other riposte, that it has photographic evidence that London Lite distributors are also dumping. Perhaps they ought to show us the pictures because, at present, Associated's compelling film certainly gives it the edge. It is proof positive.
In my view ABC should hold an inquiry before granting certificates to either title. Doubtless media buyers will already be reaching their own conclusions about the merit of placing adverts in such papers in future.
