15 Oct 2026
Advertisements for escort services, sensual massages and naked cleaners are still appearing in the pages of the Herts Ad’s classified section – despite an apparent ban by publisher Newsquest.
In July 2008, the publisher claimed its 305 titles nationwide would pull all adult advertisements, having been persuaded of the clear link between the ads and women being trafficked for sex – yet more than a decade later these ads are still being published and have been for at least a year.
Scotland Yard has suggested classified adult advertisements in local print media are connected to human trafficking, illegal brothels, and the exploitation of vulnerable women.
Revenue from the ads run into tens of thousands of pounds, and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said these private classified small-ads fall outside its direct regulatory remit, leaving policy decisions largely to individual publishing groups.
Over recent weeks, the Herts Ad has been running an advertisement for the ‘Lovely Ladies Escort Agency’, which promised visits from beautiful ladies, including the return of someone called “Mistress Stern”, which suggests some sort of dominatrix figure.
Other ads were for a naked cleaner/massage, where a “voyeuristic and fun experience awaits” and sensual massages from someone called Sophia, who made both in and out calls.
We asked Newsquest to explain their policy regarding advertisements for what are obviously sex workers, whether this was considered to be appropriate content for a title which claims to be a family newspaper, what checks take place to ensure these women are not being trafficked or exploited, and whether they would be removing these ads going forwards?
Nobody from the company responded to our request for comment, so we reached out to St Albans MP Daisy Cooper, who contacted Newsquest herself.
She told us: “As soon as I was alerted to these adverts, I asked the Herts Advertiser to clarify urgently whether they were consistent with their advertising policies, and what action they had taken to ensure that they do not inadvertently facilitate any illegal activity such as human trafficking.
“In response, they confirmed that they have ‘decided to stop running these adverts because they do not align with our brand values’. They also gave me assurances that they ‘do not believe there is anything illegal contained in the adverts’ and confirmed that if readers have concerns about any adverts in the Herts Ad, they can report them to the Advertising Standards Authority.”
Given this response, it remains uncertain whether Newsquest’s ban is still in place, and if so whether it applies to other newspaper titles within the publisher’s portfolio, such as the neighbouring Welwyn Hatfield Times and Watford Observer.
Herts Ad senior editor Michael Adkins was contacted by the St Albans branch of the Soroptimists, whose members work to improve the lives of women and girls locally, nationally and globally, and asked to justify the Herts Ad being used as a publicity platform for sex workers.
Spokesperson Jane Slatter said: “When Newsquest banned sex ads from all its titles in 2008 that was good news in our campaign to end the abuse of women and girls.”
Highlighting the advertisements found within the pages of the Herts Ad, she added: “This is clearly inappropriate content for a family newspaper. Do checks take place to ensure these women are not being trafficked or exploited? If not then could Newsquest be facilitating this criminal activity by offering a platform to advertise these services?”
She received a similar response to that sent to Daisy Cooper, stressing that the company would be removing the ads solely because of concerns over their brand values.
Jane added: “Right and wrong isn’t always a legal matter… At least they’re going to stop the ads – they make my skin crawl. Soroptimists worked hard over many years, resulting in the Modern Slavery Act in 2015.
“The Purple Teardrop Campaign was an award-winning charity set up by the Poole Soroptimists to stop human trafficking. Clubs all over the country, including St Albans, supported the campaign, and one action was to lobby to stop advertisements for services of a sexual nature that increase the demand for trafficking.”
Editor’s Comment
One of the most uncomfortable aspects of my former job as editor of the Herts Advertiser was having to excuse the inexcusable. The newspaper’s publishers Archant had no qualms about including advertisements for sex workers within the ‘Personal Services’ section of the classified pages, and had no interest in listening to their editors who had to field complaints from disgusted readers.
The 2008 announcement by then-rival Newsquest that they would be banning all sexual services ads did nothing to restrict their appearance within Archant’s titles, but surely this should have changed when the company was bought out by Newsquest?
Flash forwards a few years, and there seemed to be no sign of these advertisements vanishing from many of the Newsquest portfolio of newspapers, even though leading experts had linked such ads to potential human trafficking and the exploitation of women.
But while we cannot influence the content of all their products, we could certainly highlight their inclusion in the Herts Ad, and thanks to MP Daisy Cooper and St Albans Soroptimists they will now be withdrawn. The reason given though, that they do not conform to the title’s “brand values”, arguably fails to take into account whether Newsquest has a moral duty not to publicise sexual services within its titles. One also has to wonder whether their other newspaper advertisers really want to be indirectly associated with this sort of salacious content?
