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The Evening Standard is Free
5th October 2009
The Evening Standard goes free
The Evening Standard has always for me been part of the way of life in London. It was your friend when you were lonely, it made you look engaged when you weren't. It kept you dry when you forgot your umbrella, it found me my first job, my first flat, my first car, my first fridge.It even had a little to do with my love life in that I went to see a band in a pub advertised in the Standard. But surely you say that's exactly what a newspaper was for before the Internet and mobile phones.
When you were in a hurry in the morining and didn't have time to wrestle with a broadsheet you always had time in the evening on the way home for the Standard. What would you do on the tube? In fact it was public transport that made the Standard relevant. Sitting on a train or tube you could borrow, read the headlines from a distance, hide, converse (rarely) with the Standard acting as you prop.
No one ever worried about the cost of the Standard, I always thought it worth every penny especially with the friendly guy outside the tube at Fulham Broadway who always had a smile whatever the weather. How will he paid now?
The Evening Standard even broke some amazing stories which because of timing alone were able to deliver the story of the day before the morning papers.
The Standard has survived and is a brand London should be proud of. Going free had to happen and once again will allow the paper to become the dominant brand on the streets. Well not the street the CLOUD.
Within 2 years the standard will not be printed any more your mobile, and your e-reader will pick up the news and the Standard will be the first to create a new wireless solution for the tube. You heard it here first. Sitting on the tube you will be able to link into the heart beat of London via The Standard and once again you will have one window through which to find a flat, a job, a car, a love life. Classified advertising and links will ensure the Standard remains a profitable solution and as we all become journalist the news will be filtered by you.
The Evening Standard - for any real Londoner there is no other news brand.
So the printed version is Free... but the online subscription version will not be....still but worth every 'Micro' penny it will cost
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