Evening Standard saves on distribution costs by going free

The paper, 75.1% of which is owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, has been a paid-for daily for 182 years. The decision was made in the hope that the boosted circulation numbers would increase advertising enough to make up for the lost revenue of having no cover price. 

The amount saved on distribution costs is another positive result of the change, with Greig saying the Evening Standard had previously been spending 12p a copy on newsagents. Nevertheless, Grieg admits that the switch from newspaper to freesheet has seen the paper lose its geographic spread.

Grieg said the Standard was now much more a London-focused paper, mentioning Eastbourne as an example of one place no longer reasonable for the paper to be distributed: "Most newsagents who contact us, we're keeping a dialogue with them in order to distribute to them," Greig added.
 
"We won't go back to the huge pattern of distribution we had. It's a London central paper with some tentacles going out."

When the switch was initially announced, Lebedev said that "the London Evening Standard is the first leading quality newspaper to go free and I am sure others will follow."

Greig said the changes were essential if the paper was to survive the harsh financial climate that has descended over the UK and US news industries: "If we had kept going with the old model, there's no way the paper would have been going in a year's time".

With little faith in the capacity to charge for online content, Grieg said that the Standard's game plan was to encourage a habit in its consumers, getting them used to picking up a copy of the freesheet on a daily basis: "Our model is to force people to have a habit and once they have a habit they get addicted," Greig said.
 
This approach has potential, as one of the strongest arguments against charging online is the fact that people have grown used to accessing news online for free and to try and shift this attitude is not an easy task. 

The Standard's efforts to keep afloat come as two other major freesheets close their doors. News Corp's the londonpaper stopped printing in September following a loss of £12.9 million pre-tax in the year to 29 June 2008 alongside a wider ideological argument headed by CEO Rupert Murdoch that news should not be free. The London Lite also announced closure, publishing its last issue last week. Forced out by competition from the newly free Standard and reporting a massive loss of £20m last year it could not continue to lose money.

Source: Guardian