Monday 31 August 2009

Less paper on the seats

There has been a lot of news the last few weeks about the imminent demise of the London Paper. Time was that if you wanted to read an evening paper in London there was only one choice... the Evening Standard. That bastion of London journalism which back in May ran a bizarre advertising campaign apologising to readers. These adverts appeared on buses and tubes which had in large letters (using the Evening Standard masthead font) "Sorry" and then in smaller letters underneath a collection of things for which the Evening Standard wished to apologise for to London... "for being negative", "for being complacent", "for losing touch" and "for taking you for granted".

Most Londoner's wouldn't disagree with most of the Standard's apologies... so a few years back when the first the London Lite and the London Paper hit the streets they were a welcome addition. Yes, the Lite came from the same stable as the Standard (and indeed could have named itself the Standard Lite) but the free paper with "ink that doesn't come off on your hands" proved instantly as popular (and prone to causing litter) as morning sibling the Metro. The London Paper provided the "Sun" to the Lite's "Daily Mail". With more focus on celebrity and gossip I never much liked it. Also the strange font type used makes the articles hard to read as I find all the words run together.

The only positive that the London Paper had over the Lite was that they print more copies and the distributors stay out later, which means leaving the office at 7pm you can get a London Paper but not a Lite.

Yes the free papers are an immense cause of litter on the tube and the streets, but it would be a shame if the Lite and the Metro follow the London Paper into obscurity. I won't pay 50p (or more!) to read a paper, so it is the only way I read the news off the internet.