Tuesday 2nd October

It is Monday morning, and added to the return to work, the cranking up of the engine, the dollar-making machine, it is raining.  So, what a nice surprise on exiting Green Park station to be offered a free newspaper.  I sometimes pick up the Metro, but usually flick through quickly and discard this rightwing drivel.  I like to read City A.M., or at least the editorial – it is quite handy to know how the enemy is thinking.  But today I was handed a copy if the ‘i’, the shorter snappier version of The Independent.  Time was, when I seemed to have the time to actually read ‘The Independent’ some days, but with the advent of internet news I usually catch up on the BBC news on line.  Sometimes on a Friday I get the ‘I’, not only because it is cheap at 20p but also because it is a damned good newspaper.  It manages to combine the spontaneity of a tabloid with the serious news analysis of a broadsheet.  And it has a ‘daily briefing’ to give you a taster for more lengthy articles on pages following, so if you are in a hurry you can scan these little précis, and decide whether to read a bit more or not.

The problem for all newspapers is not only that internet and TV news is all around us, but distribution.  The fact that you have to go to a newsagent and actually decide to buy the paper every day is a real bind.  The Evening Standard is now given away free every night, and seems to be a success; presumably selling enough advertising to pay for the journalists and printing costs.   Who knows maybe this will be the way forward for all papers, I cannot see internet subscription as being a real winner, people have gotten used to free news for too long now.  If they can make enough from advertising then giving the paper away is the only long-term solution.  Or maybe, daft idea that this may be, a voluntary contribution box next to a pile of free newspapers.  Yes, it is a stupid idea.  Still at least it was an idea.