Mark Pack

With the Evening Standard about to go free, getting hold of a printed copy will no longer be a matter of whether or not you want to pay for it from one of the numerous newsagents and sellers around London but instead a matter of whether or not you can find a free distributor who isn’t hugely out of your way.

In central London, near the tube stations in particular, that isn’t likely to be much of a problem.

But take a look at the distribution map on the Standard website: currently there are no distribution points in NW3, NW5 N2, N6 or N8. Areas that do have distribution points are not that better served. N19 for example has but the one, at Archway Tube station. N4 comes out better, with Finsbury Park station and two supermarkets (Stroud Green Road Tesco and Green Lanes Sainsburys), but even so that is far fewer places than the number of newsagents who have been selling the Standard.

The paper may be free, but would you go out of your way to find it?

So will the Standard end up being a free central London newspaper rather than a voice across the capital? That’s a question of interest not just for its financial future, but also for its editorial and political outlook. If it is predominantly a newspaper of those who live or work in central London that could give a very different outlook to issues than a voice of the suburbs publication.

Interesting times…

Hat-tip for the map: Diamond Geezer