"Clearly the rattled Standard is lashing out at us in response to its 28% year-on-year sales drop, and the fact that twice as many Londoners now pick up the London Paper as buy their ailing product," said a spokeswoman for News International, owner of the London Paper.

Perhaps, but this isn’t the essence of the problem at stake.

The real problem, as we feared yesterday, was that this ad bashing campaign might lead to an overall negative impact and perception of newspapers, instead of bolstering anybody’s public image.

"In so doing, the Standard has both invited a direct comparison, and attacked free papers in general, which should make interesting reading for the staff of both [Associated owned] Metro and the Lite,” said a News International spokeswoman.

Yes, this has led to a direct comparison and attack, on not only free papers but newspapers in general, especially since News International responded in the same belligerent terms. And no, it won’t be interesting reading for both staffs, or maybe it will be – for the staffs.

But this could also mark the beginning of a petty war irrelevant to the reader, which could also hinder the readers’ interest in any of the two papers. Both the London Evening Standard and the London Paper might well be en route to an escalation of competitive blindness.

Source: Media Guardian