Bank London Offshore Standard Trust

Admin | November 14, 2011 | Comments Off

Bank London Offshore Standard Trust

Bank London Offshore Standard Trust

Alexander Lebedev, the owner of the London Evening Standard, has confirmed plans to drop the 50p price tag on his newspapers and instead offer them in the capital for free. The Evening Standard has been a paid-for title in the city for more than 180 years, and by turning it into a free sheet, Lebedev hopes to challenge the circulation of the London Lite, currently the only free paper in London since the London Paper title closed in September.

Initial Redundancies Ruled Out

It is thought that once the London Evening Standard becomes available as a free paper, the London Lite will be forced to close, making the Standard London’s largest circulating newspaper. Despite ruling out initial redundancies, industry sources maintain that losing the paid-for revenue will encourage hard times for the paper, and speculation has begun on what cuts will be made in order to make ends meet. Speaking to the Guardian, one source said: “You have got to find ways to take costs out of the business when the model moves to free, of course.”

The paper is hoping to make up lost revenue by increasing its circulation and relying more on classified and display advertisements. In theory, this in turn will create more readers and attract more advertisers to the title. Free papers never have an easy run however; the only highly successful free sheet in the UK at the moment is the Metro, an urban news digest, which relies entirely on advertising to keep afloat.