Standard poised to revive Hot Tickets

Campaign 07-Sep-07

The Evening Standard is set to resurrect its Hot Tickets listings supplement in a bid to win more readers and ad revenue.

Hot Tickets, which was revamped as MetroLife in 2002, combined TV and
entertainment listings with lifestyle coverage each Thursday evening. It
was scrapped in 2005.

However, the Standard has put a new Hot Tickets product into research,

and has already approached media agencies about securing support from

advertisers and sponsors. One agency source said the Standard, whose
circulation has suffered following the introduction of the London
freesheets, planned to launch the supplement in October.

Hot Tickets and its MetroLife successor were popular with readers, and a
relaunch could bring extra circulation and ad revenue each Thursday.
However, one agency source said: "The people who miss it most are likely
to be the younger ones who read the free evening papers. Are these
people going to buy the Standard as well as reading London Lite? Perhaps
not."

A Standard spokeswoman said: "There are no plans to launch. It's one of
a number products and options that are being looked at."