London Evening Standard for free
Posted by Nestor Bailly on October 2, 2009 at 12:06 PM
After 180 years as a paid-for publication, the London Evening Standard will become a freely distributed newspaper on the 12th of October.
Owner Alexander Lebedev, who bought a 75% share of the Standard in January, has announced that the 50 pence price of the daily paper will be dropped and issues will be freely distributed in the streets of London. It is expected that the paper's circulation will more than double, from 250,000 to 600,000.
Lebedev is confident that the paper will succeed with this unexpected business model, which comes as quite a surprise as more publishers turn towards paid content and since the closure of the free paper thelondonpaper in September, which many held as marking the end of the free print model, at least in the UK.
"The Standard has been producing exceptional journalism since 1827 and that is not going to change under my ownership. The London Evening Standard is the first leading quality newspaper to go free and I am sure others will follow," Lebedev says.
Owner Alexander Lebedev, who bought a 75% share of the Standard in January, has announced that the 50 pence price of the daily paper will be dropped and issues will be freely distributed in the streets of London. It is expected that the paper's circulation will more than double, from 250,000 to 600,000.
Lebedev is confident that the paper will succeed with this unexpected business model, which comes as quite a surprise as more publishers turn towards paid content and since the closure of the free paper thelondonpaper in September, which many held as marking the end of the free print model, at least in the UK.
"The Standard has been producing exceptional journalism since 1827 and that is not going to change under my ownership. The London Evening Standard is the first leading quality newspaper to go free and I am sure others will follow," Lebedev says.
The Standard will immediately begin to loose £370,000 a week by cutting off circulation revenue, but managing director Andrew Mullins claims that being a quality paper with now-increased range "should transform our commercial fortunes. Our London reach will be
at multiples of the quality national titles and our London classified
business will once again have significant scale."
This radical move brings up more than a few questions and things to consider. First, why free, and why now? Mullins himself says, "there are so many competing distractions to potential readers, particularly with new technologies," will going free really draw that many more readers? Surely those who subscribed to and paid for the Standard thought it was a quality product, worth their money. How will the perception of the publication change when it becomes free on the streets, littered about like so many other free streetpubs?
Secondly, since the closure of thelondonpaper and the general decline of free metropolitan newspapers, wouldn't making a paper free open it to the vulnerabilities and failures of the free print model? This strategy is the opposite of what most newspapers are pursuing, nurturing a solid base of core readers from which they extract subscriptions and valuable targeted ads, as it puts all the weight on wide distribution and mass advertising, on quantity over quality. Given the downturn in advertising sales and revenue, is this the best idea? Will ad and classifieds revenue be enough to keep the Standard competitive in the London free newspaper war? It seems that either Lebedev is banking on the paper's reputation to carry high circulation rates, or he's got something up his sleeve.
Sources: MediaGuardian
paidContent
This radical move brings up more than a few questions and things to consider. First, why free, and why now? Mullins himself says, "there are so many competing distractions to potential readers, particularly with new technologies," will going free really draw that many more readers? Surely those who subscribed to and paid for the Standard thought it was a quality product, worth their money. How will the perception of the publication change when it becomes free on the streets, littered about like so many other free streetpubs?
Secondly, since the closure of thelondonpaper and the general decline of free metropolitan newspapers, wouldn't making a paper free open it to the vulnerabilities and failures of the free print model? This strategy is the opposite of what most newspapers are pursuing, nurturing a solid base of core readers from which they extract subscriptions and valuable targeted ads, as it puts all the weight on wide distribution and mass advertising, on quantity over quality. Given the downturn in advertising sales and revenue, is this the best idea? Will ad and classifieds revenue be enough to keep the Standard competitive in the London free newspaper war? It seems that either Lebedev is banking on the paper's reputation to carry high circulation rates, or he's got something up his sleeve.
Sources: MediaGuardian
paidContent
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![Digg](http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorsweblog.org%2Fnewspaper%2F2009%2F10%2Flondon_evening_standard_for_free.php&bodytext=After 180 years as a paid-for publication, the <b><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/"><u><i>London Evening Standard</i></u></a></b> will become a freely distributed newspaper on the 12th of October. <br /><form contenteditable="false" mt:asset-id="3822" class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/londonevstand.gif"><img alt="londonevstand.gif" src="http://www.editorsweblog.org/assets_c/2009/10/londonevstand-thumb-231x101-3822.gif" class="mt-image-left" style="margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt; float: left;" height="101" width="231" /></a></form><br />Owner <b>Alexander Lebedev</b>, <a href="http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-evening-standard-sold-to-former-kgb-spy-for-1/">who bought a 75% share of the <i>Standard</i> in January</a>, has announced that the 50 pence price of the daily paper will be dropped and issues will be freely distributed in the streets of London. It is expected that the paper's circulation will more than double, from 250,000 to 600,000.<br /><br />Lebedev is confident that the paper will succeed with this unexpected business model, which comes as quite a surprise as more publishers turn towards paid content and since <a href="http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-londonpaper-closure-murdoch-has-lost-faith-in-free/">the closure of the free paper <i>thelondonpaper</i> in September</a>, which many held as marking the end of the free print model, at least in the UK. <br /><br />"The Standard has been producing exceptional journalism since 1827 and
that is not going to change under my ownership. The London Evening
Standard is the first leading quality newspaper to go free and I am
sure others will follow," Lebedev says.<br />&title=<i><b>London Evening Standard</i></b> for free){kind=link}
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