Newspapers haven’t been having the greatest time recently. Circulations continue to fall, and there’s a generation growing up who gets its news from the web, perhaps with the odd bit of a 24-hour news channel thrown in.
But that’s really paid-for newspapers. We also now have the free titles. Starting with Metro, and added to, in the capital at least, by the LondonPaper and London Lite. People probably read just about as many titles as they did before. The difference is that they’re not paying for them. And ad revenues alone do not make great editorial.
Against this background, the Evening Standard has been sold to an ex-KGB member who wants to turn it around. Worringly, they’ve put the editor of The Tatler in place as its new editor, but things can only improve from its most recent iteration. But, as you can see above, the fascinating tack they’ve taken with their new advertising campaign is to actually apologise to Londoners for the negativity and aloofness the title had adopted in recent times.
When I first started working in London all those years ago, I’d always buy a paper in the morning – probably The Independent – and the Standard on the way home in the evening. Even though I didn’t come from a household that religiously had had a daily paper delivered when I was growing up, I’d fallen in love with newspapers.
When The Independent launched in 1986, I was 16 years old and bought the first copy. I still have it. For many years the Indie carried me along – a title that fitted my hopes and beliefs, and delivered thoughtful news. Remember, at the time it was the only paper that refused to cover Royal stories in any meaningful way. It took science seriously. It had a fantastic Saturday magazine.
Roll forward a few years, and I was still in the newspaper habit. I’d by now worked for a local newspaper group, and that had done nothing to remove the habit.
In those first years in London, I enjoyed reading the Standard on the way home. Yes, it was lighter than The Independent, but it still had a bit of foreign news – they even had a couple of foreign correspondents. The paper had a decent supplement, its sports coverage of the capital’s teams was second to none, arts coverage was excellent, and it was good value. It got me home.
Somewhere along the way, things changed. I switched to The Guardian when underinvestment at The Independent and an over-reliance on campaigns and news that wasn’t really news led me away from it.
And at some point down the line, I stopped reading the Standard too. This was in spite of having people like Derek Malcolm write their film reviews. But there was page after page of columnists, and less news than there had been.
Yes, like everyone else, I get more of my news from the internet these days, but in actual fact, local news coverage is hard to come by on the internet. It’s mostly just the same Press Association sources repeated all over the place. The reality is that most local news still surfaces in local newspapers. But the actual “news” part of the Standard had diminished. And I stopped being a reader long before the paper’s more recent anti-Ken Livingstone hysteria and its seeming attempt to become an unloved younger sibling of the Daily Mail.
Associated tried lots of things to tempt me back. They brought out their quite innovative (and no doubt very expensive) smartcard payment system – I still have 8 credits left on my card. They gave away umbrellas (that fell apart), travel coffee mugs, and rucksacks (you can imagine how good they were). The only campaign that actually worked for me was when they gave away copies of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson to promote the hardback release of The Girl Who Played With Fire. I’d already read the book in hardback, but bought multiple copies of the Standard so that I could give the copies to friends and family who I thought might enjoy this excellent work. As it turns out, I think that Associated actually got paid to give this title away.
The interminable features and general interest in all things celebratory mean that the paper had stopped being of interest to me. On those rare occassions that I bought it – instead of lasting me all the way home, it was doing well to hold my attention for a couple of tube stops. The headlines, staring out from the sullen vendors became more hysterical. I’d maybe glance at the cover, but I wouldn’t buy it.
I’ll give the relaunched title a go. But I’m out of the habit of reading a paper on the way home. Other things fill my time – either book reading, or listening to podcasts (something that certainly wasn’t an option to me when I started working in London). Others play portable gaming devices or watch videos on their media players. We have a range of options to pass the time, even in the deepest of tube tunnels.
The other problem the Standard faces are the free papers. When Metro started, I admit that I wasn’t sure how well it’d do. For a start, they didn’t deign to make it available where I lived, and not at my interchange either. But when I did pick up copies, I couldn’t really see anything that the internet couldn’t give me. It’s a bland concotion of the main headlines plus an over-reliance of those “and finally” stories that TV used to relegate to the end of the news. Why would I want that? Others do, but I don’t. It just causes litter at the top of escalators in the morning.
So I never got into the habit.
More recently the LondonPaper launched, and alongside it London Lite. While the LondonPaper had the better design, the reality is that both of them are literally garbage. When they started out, they were pretty poor and if anything, they’ve got worse. The tube and public transport in general is littered with them. I assume that some of my above inflation fare increase is going to pay for all the additional cleaners they must need to tidy up after them.
In W1 at least, there is no shortage of vendors who generally block the pavement and get in the way. I have to pass between six to eight of them between my office and the tube station.
On the rare occassion I’ve picked up someone else’s copy, it just reinforces the feeling that I’ve been quite correct to leave them well alone. The titles’ news values are near enough non-existant. They seem to think they’re competing with low-rent magazines like Now or Heat. The quality is abysmal, and they’re filled with either press-releases seemingly reprinted verbatim or copy straight from the Press Association wire. Ceefax has deeper news coverage.
I’ve actually now begun to take offence at the vendors who thrust their papers at me. Do I look like someone who might read their tat?
I know that’s a bit unfair. They’re just earning a living. But these are rags in the truest sense. At least while there continues to be a battle between them, they’re costing their respective proprietors money rather than making it. But is that a good thing for the future of the industry?
While I await the first newspaper to offer me a package that lets me buy an e-reader like the Sony or the Amazon Kindle, and get a year’s subscription bundled in (think: the contract mobile phone model), I don’t think the actual printed page is yet a dead technology. I’m still surprised that with just about everyone on full-colour presses, more isn’t made of strong photography. The Guardian does it with Eyewitness and to be fair the Standard tries a bit too. But there’s room for more. Tell me what’s going on in this wonderful city!
Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see what the new look Standard brings us. Until I’ve seen it, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt, but this is probably the last chance saloon for the title.