At Roy Greenslade's blog, Steve Busfield:
Despite dropping its cover price, the London Evening Standard is now being sold again to some readers...The Standard has been bullish about its distribution potential, with newsagents keen to continue stocking the paper to encourage customers into shops later in the day. Now the sale of papers is being trialled in north-west London. The price charged to customers is believed to be at the discretion of the newsagent, with some selling for 20p and others at the old price of 50p.
Meanwhile, here on the banks of Clapton Pond, I never see one. What's going on? Londonist asks:
Are Geordie Greig and co worried by the stiff challenge from hard-hitting new rival The London Weekly? Nope, it's all about supply and demand. The new Standard has been criticised for failing to offer the cross-town distribution of old.
It adds:
The news may pump a little more oxygen into the conspiracy theory that the Standard's bold gamble to go free was a short-term strategy designed to bludgeon its competitors, and that once the battlefield was clear, the price point would swiftly return.
Wouldn't that be naughty? More here.
