Greenslade Blog

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 12:56pm on Friday, October 9th, 2009

Roy Greenslade comments on the Evening Standard newspaper (for which he writes a media column) going from 50p to free, and the free newspaper phenomenon in London. The Evening Standard will become a free paper on October 12, 2009:

"In London, there cannot be any doubt that the free business daily, City AM, is a fine piece of work, which consistently punches above its weight.

But all the frees distributed in central London - Metro, City AM, thelondonpaper and London Lite - have collectively helped to erode the sales of the Standard. Similarly, the growing popularity of the internet has added to its circulation woes.

Workplace screens enable commuters to read news and comment that makes a newsprint publication out of date by the time they leave their offices for home.

The net result has been a dramatic collapse in the Standard's circulation, down to 127,000 by July. While sales have been falling for the past couple of years, the paper has also been losing money.

Something dramatic had to be done to re-ignite interest from advertisers. In such desperate circumstances, going free was not so much an option as the only option.

It has the advantage of maintaining the editorial budget at its current level, enabling the paper to avoid being the kind of lightweight freesheet that no journalist really likes."