The Media Column by Paul Bradshaw

SO THIS IS WHAT THEY MEAN BY A FREE PRESS

09-09-2006

Rumours persist that a free evening paper might soon hit the streets of the West Midlands, and we already have Metro in the mornings - but that's nothing compared to London which now has a pair of freesheets every night.

Plenty of fussing to be found this week about the launch of two new free newspapers in London - London Lite, and thelondonpaper. And without having read either, I'm already hating both.

London Lite sounds like an American beer for anglophile slimmers. I'm not sure how much money they save by not having to print that extra letter on ‘light', but it surely can't be worth it.

Meanwhile, thelondonpaper's use of lower case letters with no spaces is like something from the height of the dotcom boom, when nothing online used a capital letter. It was refreshing to begin with, quickly became an annoying bandwagon, and has been out of date for about five years. I wait with baited breath for headlines in text-speak.

The battle between these two paragons of literacy isn't quite the Beatles vs the Stones - or even Oasis vs Blur - but there's nothing like a face-off to get the media excited, especially when the competitors are backed by the muscle of Associated Press and News International.

What's more, another publisher is set to enter the ring at the end of the month with the launch of a weekly free sports-themed men's magazine into underground stations.

Sport isa format imported from France where, according to MediaWeek it “was launched two years ago by Francis Jaluzot, who previously launched the Paris freesheet 20Minutes. It is now distributed in 11 cities and, with a circulation of 525,000 copies a week, it claims to reach more men in the country than any other title.”

Throw in some mud and spandex outfits, and you might just have a media circus.

So what's the denouement to this freesheet wrestling? Some commentators are asking if this is the death of the paid-for newspaper. But then, they always have been rather over-dramatic.

Ultimately, publishers are panicking in a media landscape that's changing faster than their ability to adapt. Readership is down, advertising is migrating. Publishers are still making profit margins that are generous by most industries' standards, but that's cold comfort. Things ain't what they used to be, and now they have to work at making money.

The London freesheet approach is hardly the most innovative idea to be produced as a result of this pressure. I feel sorry for the people at The Manchester Evening News, who showed a great bit of lateral thinking when they decided to give the newspaper away free to the young, commuter city centre market, while still selling the paper in suburban newsagents.

There was little coverage of the move outside the trade press, and the people behind the move must be kicking themselves at all the publicity that their London counterparts are getting.

Time to get the spandex outfits out…