London Evening Standard to go free

Ian Darby, campaignlive.co.uk 02-Oct-09, 10:50

LONDON - The London Evening Standard is to drop its coverprice and become a free newspaper.

From 12 October, the Standard’s print run will more than double from 250,000 to 600,000 and its 50p coverprice will be removed.

The move follows the acquisition of a majority stake in the Standard by Alexander Lebedev in February.

Since then, the title has been relaunched and its team have experimented with various distribution models, including giving away free copies after 10pm.

Lebedev said: "I am confident that more than doubling the London Evening Standard's circulation and maintaining its quality journalism is what London deserves."

Andrew Mullins, the managing director of the Standard, said: "Being a quality newspaper with large scale and reach should transform our commercial fortunes – our London reach will be at multiples of the quality national titles and our London classified business will once again have significant scale."