So today battle finally got underway in the London newspaper market. For years now the Evening Standard has been dominant. Dominant, that is, in a declining market. Then in 1999, following the lead of the similarly named, but separately owned Scandinavian Metro, the Evening Standard’s owners, Associated Newspapers, launched Metro (at first in London, but now across the country in major cities). Metro was free and despite worries that it might harm the circulation of Associated’s big paid-for daily, The Daily Mail, it was a success. Other daily titles have launched free editions around Britain as a result.
In London, Metro was circulated almost exclusively in railway and underground stations, having done exclusive deals that meant that potential competitors were kept out of key distribution points. Recently, this exclusivity has been ruled unfair, and there are likely to be significant bids to place a free evening paper in the stations too (as a rule, Metro has run out of papers by around 10am, with the first edition of the Evening Standard hitting the streets around then, undistributed papers are collected to ensure that potential competition is minimised).
Although the evening distribution rights have yet to be sold, News International has been planning to launch anyway, and with Richard Desmond’s Express Newspaper seemingly now uninterested having originally complained about the exclusive distribution rights Associated had got themselves, they decided to launch without further ado.
Originally TheLondonPaper was due to launch on September 18 – in a couple of weeks, but it quickly became apparent that Associated was going to get its spoiler title out sooner than that, and so both titles have moved up their timetables. Back at the end of 2004, Associated had launched a lunchtime edition of their paper called Standard Lite which was effectively a cutdown version of the Evening Standard that was given away free by the Evening Standard’s news vendors in the Central London area. Noticeably, the vendors were keen to “get rid” of these papers as quickly as possible to the lunchtime crowd so that they could get back to selling the main paper – a bigger earner for the vendors who earn a few pence for every paper sold.
A couple of weeks ago the Standard Lite stopped distribution, and then last Wednesday, the similar titled London Lite launched. At the same time Associated put the price of the Evening Standard up by 10p to try to reposition the title as a “quality” newspaper rising above the free titles.
Today is the first day that we can finally compare the three titles.
TheLondonPaper (News International) – This was being feverishly delivered around Piccadilly Circus when I visited it briefly at 4.30pm today. The closest entrance to the station to my office has a regular Standard vendor at the top of the steps to the right. Today, he had competition from a purple clad lad handing out TheLondonPaper to the left of the same staircase.
The paper is clean and colourful, with clearly labeled different sections, and full colour throughout, stapled together. Running to 48 pages, the back cover was an ad for Spamalot rather than the traditional sport, which is instead, inside the back cover. A series of facts runs along the top of the page below the section headers and above the stories. There are a couple of columnists, with Tim Lovejoy writing about sport. I didn’t really see any exclusives for the first edition, with the paper leading on the sad death of naturalist and TV presenter, Steve Irwin. There was a big photo of Pete Docherty on the cover though, and inside they had an interview with Ken Livingstone (London’s mayor).
TheLondonPaper seems to have had the most comprehensive launch strategy with their distributors looking smarter and plentiful. They also had colourful umbrellas to protect them from inclement weather. I also noted a hastily liveried white van (has it been hired?) sitting in a street nearby with the driver reading a copy of his paper. To his side on the passenger seat sat a PDA which I assume was part of the much vaunted hi-tech distribution set-up that News Int has put together to ensure that the papers get out to the areas where people are demanding them. At 6.30pm the distributor near Piccadilly Circus still had copies and the van was still in evidence although it had obviously been there.
London Lite (Associated Newspapers) – This isn’t really all that different from its predecessor, the Standard Lite. Like TheLondonPaper, they’ve gone for an off-purple masthead, and the paper is also 48 stapled full colour pages. The paper is less “original” in design than TheLondonPaper with both elements of the Standard and the Daily Mail informing its look and feel.
The paper also led on Steve Irwin and carried a full back page ad before you reached the sport. At least one significant news story appeared in both London Lite and the Evening Standard, accompanied by the same picture. But much of the content does appear to be exclusive to London Lite, including a two-page interview with Kiefer Sutherland. The arts reviews also have some shared copy with reviews of The Feeling and Beck appearing in both titles. The TV listings are similar with the same highlighted shows in both papers, although you don’t get Victor Lewis-Smith in London Lite. In actual fact, multi-channel TV listings are actually better in London Lite, with full details of popular channels listed rather than the Standard’s strange habit of identifying key programmes at set times rather than just listing a channel’s full offering. The one thing that surprised me last Thursday when I read my first London Lite, was that Derek Malcolm’s film reviews were carried in the free paper. Surely with such a distinguished critic as Malcolm, he might be reason enough to buy a paper. I’ve certainly bought titles purely to read what a reviewer thinks about a particular film or book.
The London Lite’s distributors didn’t have as much merchandise or obvious back-up as TheLondonPaper’s with their papers stacked against railings and no sign of anything that might protect them from the weather. The distributor wasn’t standing near the top of my staircase at the tube entrance where the Standard vendor sold or TheLondonPaper’s distributor was handing out. Are London Lite distributors under orders to stay apart from Standard vendors?
The Evening Standard (Associated Newspapers)
This is the old girl herself. I must admit that once upon a time I used to read the Evening Standard pretty regularly on the way home, but then it took a turn towards, well, the Daily Mail, and now it’s pretty infrequent that I pick up a copy. Today’s paper ran to 64 stapled pages, and above the masthead a new phrase had appeared – “London’s Quality Paper.” The headline news was serious, highlighting the death of a tourist in Jordan. No sign of Steve Irwin on the cover. Inside, it was still strongly news oriented, with much of the first eleven pages serious fare (well, OK, they did cover the press launch of series 2 of Extras).
The comment pages have been enlarged of late with a full two pages handed over to comment and opinion as well as the leader. The news carried on through right until page 25 before handing over to business – a section that neither free paper really covered substantially with a single page in TheLondonPaper and two in London Lite. The Standard had five.
Then you get into the feature section of the paper with different ones day after day, and this is really where the Standard has something ahead of the other titles. For example, Monday has a book review section, something neither other title is likely to include.
I’d love to know how happy Standard vendors are at the moment. They’re the ones who are going to feel the effect of the two new titles the most. It must be remembered that these free papers are largely distributed inside Zones 1 and 2, so most other people will continue not to have a choice and buy their paper at their local newsagent, convenience store or supermarket as before.
So which paper will I be reading. The easy answer is to say none of them, but I will continue to pick up the odd Standard. As for the free ones? Well TheLondonPaper is the easy winner there. It looks better and seems to be a title you’d be happier being seen reading on the tube. Having said that, London Lite might easily see me through a sandwich at lunchtime.
I don’t really think that London Lite is a true competitor, it’s just a spoiler as the relaunch of the Evening News was when Robert Maxwell tried to launch the London Daily News. That time around, Associated knew that its deeper pockets meant that it could see off Maxwell’s title. But this time around, they’re facing their fiercest rival, and a man with very deep pockets – Rupert Murdoch. I suspect that London Lite is going to have to improve substantially to compete, but that should be possible. Where does that leave the Standard? Well sales outside the central area remain important and will not face the battle of the tube entrances and bus stops that Zone 1 vendors will. Significant promotions and investment in editorial are key. After all, many people happily buy a morning paper rather than read Metro. I know. I’m one of them.