I must start this post by stating that I write a weekly media column for the London Evening Standard (on Wednesdays, by the way, in case you didn't know and have been gagging to read it).
I noted Stephen Brook's piece last Friday about the Standard staff's unease at the presence of London Lite journalists still being quartered in their office now that the paper has a new owner.
Today Stephen Glover in The Independent raises his eyebrows, Old deal puts pressure on Lebedev's new Standard. And Media Monkey also weighs in with an item about the confusion caused by having a rival paper attending the Standard's morning conference.
I have to say it does seem a bizarre arrangement. A Standard spokesman evidently called it "business as usual". But it is, in fact, an unusual business altogether.
London Lite competes for readers with the Standard. It is able to know exactly what the Standard is up to. That was all very well in the days when they marched together (if less than happily).
I understand that the Standard's new owner, Alexander Lebedev, will benefit from the editorial services the Standard provides to Lite. It may therefore be a good commercial deal, but it is not a good journalistic one.
