Money for nothing, the Standard for free!

Last week, after over 180 years as a pay-for paper, the Evening Standard newspaper decided to move to a free paper format. I think this is a pretty extraordinary and somewhat baffling move.

The Financial Times group currently charge for online content, and Rupert Murdoch's News International group are set to move to a subscription based fee format. The Guardian has also just announced it is developing an iPhone application that will have a fee attached to it, that will allow you to access news and features from its website on the go. So, it does raise the question why The Evening Standard is taking this step. For sure it will certainly increase its dwindling readership (currently sub 250,000 – predicted to rise to 600,000), but advertising revenues are not what they were, especially in print media and I doubt they will cover revenue lost from sales (believed to be around the £10m figure).

I'm by no means comparing The Standard to Metro or London Lite, it certainly has a far higher quality of editorial, but I can't see that being a big enough selling point to advertisers.

I’m fascinated to find out...
Are they prepared to potentially switch back to a paid for format?
How much of the paper will be dedicated to advertising over editorial?
Will it create material specifically for online (and online advertisers) to draw people from the free paper?
Will it move to an earlier release to compete with Metro?
Will editorial policy be affected by advertising?


Its always exciting, inspiring even, to see someone step out from the crowd and make a bold move. However, you have to question the sanity of its owner, Russian billionaire, Alexander Lebedev. In an increasingly competitive media sector, with almost all national media assessing the viability of charging for editorial content (be it online or print), this really makes very little sense.

I genuinely hope I'm proven wrong, but I think by this time next year, The London Evening Standard will be confined to the great big recycling bin in the sky, along with its fellow city sheet, The London Paper. Watch this space!