Home News Delivery (HND) Month has come to a close, with retailers and publishers praising the effort and backing a bigger and better campaign in future years.

Throughout October, HND Month saw more than 1,800 point-of-sale (PoS) packs and 60,000 leaflets distributed to more than 1,300 retailers across the UK to help them promote HND services.

Desmond Barr, of Sinclair Barr Newsagents in Paisley, said the campaign generated 28 new orders for his store. “It was an incredibly productive project and I would take part again,” he said.

“We had a regular feed of one or two sign-ups a week all month,” said Will Garner, of Garner’s News. “I did a leaflet campaign in September to line up with it, and overall we brought in 70 new customers.”

Publishers also said the campaign was a success. Reach claimed more than 1,000 new orders across its portfolio of titles. Reach’s regional head of circulation, Paul Jenkins, described HND Month as “a fantastic opportunity to support our retail partners to both maintain and increase HND rounds at a crucial time of the year” and “a true example of the industry working together”.

Andy Law, senior national account manager at DMG Media, told Better Retailing: “Mail subscriptions sign-ups exceeded our expectations, and from conversations we have had with retailers, many have picked up incremental HND orders because of the activity.”

A Guardian spokesperson agreed, telling Better Retailing: “Our expectations have also been exceeded with the number of people that have signed up to our subscription scheme, promoted in material sent out to participating retailers.

“We concluded the month by launching our nationwide delivery service alongside PaperRound. With more than 100 delivery partners already participating, we’d love to hear from other retailers interested in partnering with us.”

Paul Bacon, key account manager at the i, added: “We had a successful October for acquiring new subscriptions, and HND month contributed to this.”

Wholesalers had also backed the scheme. Menzies Distribution said the company had been “delighted” to take part in HND month and “celebrate the retailers that provide this valuable service”.

Smiths News described it as a “remarkable initiative”, adding that it had enrolled “over 380 new customers through our outbound call campaign”. The wholesaler said: “[We are still] gauging the impact on sales and subscriptions. Early feedback from publishers indicates a positive influence.”

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