Metro pulls the plug on London Lite

This Friday marked the end of an era for London’s commuters. Not only did the government retake the franchise of the troubled East Coast Mainline, but the last issue of ‘London Lite’ was published and distributed in stations around the capital. This followed the demise, a month or so ago, of Lite’s main rival, ‘thelondonpaper’. Spurred on by the phenomenal success of the free commuters’ newspaper ‘Metro’, ‘thelondonpaper’ was launched in late 2006 as a free evening newspaper and in response ‘Metro’ launched their own evening newspaper, ‘London Lite’.

Both were focused towards young professional commuters, and had substantial showbiz and lifestyle sections. You could see the battle for newspaper supremacy unfold before your eyes, as it was impossible to walk down a central London street without having a copy of each thrust into your face by an overzealous individual in a bright tabard, eager to get rid of their stack of newspapers. This aggressive distribution strategy was heavily criticised for being annoying and creating mountains of leftover newspaper rubbish on public transport and on the streets. However, after advertising budgets took a hit in the recession, ‘thelondonpaper’ folded this year after recording a loss of £13 million. Not long afterwards, ‘London Lite’ announced its own closure and the final issue was given out on Friday. So ends the sorry tale of the capitals free evening newspapers- or does it? In October it was announced that the ‘Evening Standard’, recently acquired by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev for £1, would become a free paper in the hope of increasing its readership and revitalising its falling advertising revenue. It may fare well, now that the competition has dissolved, but there are worries that it could try and become more like the other newspapers, with more attention to celebrity gossip and less to real news. Free papers certainly have a reputation for having much less quality news than those that are paid for.

The question remains as to whether other, larger newspapers will decide to go free. The financial aspect would not be as great as one might think, as most newspapers already make more than double from advertising than what they make from paper sales, and advertising income would increase as circulation increased. While some quality papers may not want to drop their prices, it might be the only option in a culture where free, up to the minute internet news is readily available, now increasingly on people’s mobile phones and PDAs. It is yet to be seen whether the Evening Standard will have the same large readership as the Lite, while retaining the size and quality of a purchased paper.