London’s leading newspaper, the Evening Standard, was relaunched today as a freesheet… and guess what? I can’t get a copy.
I went down to my local newsagent to buy a copy of the newspaper. I looked on the shelf to see that I couldn’t see one anywhere. I asked him about the loss of the Standard. He replied that the newspaper had now become free and didn’t have any copies. Naturally, I walked out to walked from most of the shops in my local area to see if there were copies of the Standard anywhere…. no such luck. In frustration, I even walked to my local Underground station to see if I could get a copy there… no joy. It took me almost an hour to realise that I wasn’t going to get a copy of the Standard today.
I’m very sceptical about the Standard’s motives for this decision. It seems that, unless you live and work in either Central London, the City, or at some other locations selected for commuters to pick up the paper, then you’re going to be out of luck. If this continues, the Standard will soon start to lose a lot of readers. The UK’s capital city deserves better.