Manchester Evening News replaces Lite with free copies

by Sheelagh Doyle, Media Week 25-Apr-06

The Manchester Evening News is to close its Lite edition and go free in the city centre in an aggressive bid to drive up circulation.

From next Tuesday, 50,000 copies of the MEN will be available free of
charge via offices, newsagents and street distributors every weekday
morning from 7am.

As part of the publisher's shift in strategy, its afternoon freesheet,

the year-old MEN Lite, will close on Friday. The free newspaper will be

exactly the same as the paid-for version, and bosses at the title are
hoping it will take the MEN's circulation, which stands at 134,000, up
to 180,000.

Mark Rix, managing director of MEN media sales, said that by taking a
part pay/part free strategy, the publisher hoped to attract a new
audience of newspaper readers.

He said: "We know that we sell 7,000 copies in the city centre everyday
but that there are 150,000 people living and working in the area and we
aim to reach one in three of those people."

Rix added that initially there would be no change to advertising rates.
But its ABC listing will move to the free daily paper section, alongside
Associated's Metro.

Although the free edition of the MEN will be appearing in the morning,
at the same time as Associated's Metro, with whom the MEN has a
franchise, Rix said the arrangement would be unaffected.

"They are totally different products," he said. "The Metro targets the
commuter market and the MEN is more regionally focused."

Last summer, the MEN announced that it was planning to extend its Lite
edition into affluent areas in South Manchester and Cheshire, and a
similar strategy could follow for the free edition.

Rix said: "We are not planning to abandon our paid-for edition, but one
would expect the paid-for sale to continue to decline in the future.

"We will need to find new outlets so we don't rule it out - historical
trends would suggest we may have to."