please empty your brain below
A sad state of affairs, indeed. However London did manage to sustain two evening papers, the News and the Standard, back in the day - and require payment into the bargain!

cau1khead | 15.08.22 - 8:13 a.m. | #

There was at one time 3 London Evening papers. The Evening News. the Evening Standard and The Star.
The newsvendor stall keepers would shout out "News Star and Standard"

John | 15.08.22 - 8:21 a.m. | #

Amazing, John - I must have arrived later in the "the day" than I realised!

cau1khead | 15.08.22 - 8:25 a.m. | #

Metro is available in selected locations nationwide of course but the Evening Standard is the only London newspaper (except the locals e.g Ham and High) so it looks like it’s eventual demise is perhaps inevitable. I remember when there were three London papers, The Star which was absorbed into The Evening News in the early 60s and which itself was merged with the Standard in the 1980s.

winsleigh | 15.08.22 - 8:44 a.m. | #

The newspaper dispensers at virtually all London stations are left half full of Friday's Evening Standard over the weekend. The reason for this is that the delivery driver who fills the dispensers with the Metro first thing in the morning is also the same person who takes away the previous night's Evening Standards.
As the Metro is not published at weekends, Friday night's Evening Standards therefore simply remain in the dispensers until Monday morning. Not an ideal arrangement, but it would be very costly for the newspaper distributors to make a special visit to every station on Saturday morning just to take away Friday night's leftover papers.

Carllo | 15.08.22 - 9:18 a.m. | #

Most papers were the playthings of their owners.

The automatic publishing of sales figures by ABC ceased in 2020, its now something that the newspaper shares only with advertisers, it was done to stop endless publicity about the death of newspapers. So the last published figures in March 2020 showed all national titles were below 1 million sales per day, so on that basis the figures for the Evening Standard seem generous.

But the two big reasons for the paper have gone, the classifieds - it used to be important to get the first edition because of this, the other was something to do on the way home, mobiles have taken care of both.

Still Anon | 15.08.22 - 9:49 a.m. | #

It does no harm to leave them there over the weekend anyway, as there's always the chance that someone might pick up one to read on Saturday, if wanting something to flick through on their journey.

Mikey C | 15.08.22 - 10:42 a.m. | #

I used to sell the Evening News and Evening Standard at the bottom of the stairs at Mill Hill East station after getting back from school.

My profits were immediately spent in the little sweet shop (shed) by the entrance to the car park.

PiccDriver | 15.08.22 - 10:50 a.m. | #

Our nearest distribution point, Bow Church DLR, has been removed.

To think you could once buy the ES in places like Brighton and Southend.

Kim | 15.08.22 - 12:06 p.m. | #

About ten years ago, I was chatting to the guy in charge of Standard distribution outside Holborn station (ie he opened all the bundles and stacked them up) and was amazed at the number they then got through — upwards of 50,000 each evening, I seem to remember. Obviously circulation will have dropped drastically since then for the reasons you give, plus pandemic-related loss of commuter traffic, but I wonder if central tube stations still shift a fair few copies (perhaps not in August) and more than outliers such as Mile End?

Labourer | 15.08.22 - 12:28 p.m. | #

I picked up Friday's Standard in Sainsbury's, Stanmore yesterday. They don't get the Metro so the ES is usually available most of each day.

Mike Roberts | 15.08.22 - 2:13 p.m. | #

At Liverpool Street station (main lines), the evening paper leftovers must tally close to a thousand, with full(ish) bins not only in the concourse but also in Bishopsgate outside.

I only pick the rag up for its puzzles - the Standard's 'news' is too within a political agenda to be readable. Sadly that applies to most news media now; trying to find unbiased reporting which lets me make up my mind has been a harder challenge for years. I'd *buy* an honest newspaper!

Joel | 15.08.22 - 4:03 p.m. | #

The last London newspaper I bought was LOOT. Think it was the green edition, not sure what day that makes it.

Cottonsocks | 15.08.22 - 7:08 p.m. | #

Many of the London local papers are "Archant" titles (head office in Norwich, with Eastern Daily Press as their main business) and are no longer free. Archant went bust recently but was rescued to continue.

Up my way, the competition is the Camden New Journal, who also publish West End Extra (for distribution in Westminster) and Islington Tribune

MilesT | 15.08.22 - 11:08 p.m. | #

I think I've read that commuting is lower on Fridays as even those who are back in the office tend to pick that day to work from home - so there are probably more unread copies on a Friday afternoon than other days. I suppose there could be an opportunity there for the Standard to have more features (their glossy mag isn't around anymore, is it?) to make it worthwhile for leisure travellers at the weekend to pick up a copy, but maybe the advertising money's just not there.

And as for the days of three papers - we had the choice of the Evening Standard, London Lite and thelondonpaper in the late 2000s, which ended with the two upstarts folding and the Standard going free.

martin | 16.08.22 - 7:44 a.m. | #











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