Evening Standard going free and advertising based

The London Evening Standard is becoming a free newspaper. It will increase the circulation from 250.000 to 600.000 and is counting on increased advertising revenues to make up £15 million in lost revenues from the move. In a world of reduced advertising income for most newspapers this is seen as a brave and risky move. It may also mean trouble for London Lite, the one remaining afternoon London  free paper after the closure of the London Paper earlier this year. London lite is also distributed in the afternoon and will go head to head with the Evening Standard.

Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev is to make the London Evening Standard a free newspaper later this month, after more than 180 years as a paid-for title.The 50p newspaper, which is 75.1% owned by Lebedev and 24.9% owned by Associated newspapers, will go free from 12 October.Lebedevs decision immediately throws the spotlight on Associated Newspapers London Lite, set up as a rival to News Internationals the London Paper, which closed in September. Many expect that London Lite will now close.

via London Evening Standard to go free | Media | guardian.co.uk.