Setting the Newspaper Free

A couple of weeks ago, it was The Economist that fretted over the future of newspapers. Now the BBC is asking whether the day will soon pass when consumers will be willing to pay a plug nickel (or even a half pence!) for a newspaper.

The event that has the Beeb asking the question is the launch of London's third free daily newspaper on Monday of this week. In the lowercase world of Internet URLs, the new paper is titled simply thelondonppaper, published by Rupert Murdoch's News International. It comes on the heels of the launch last week of London Lite (tastes great? less filling?), which is the work of Associated Newspapers.

The business models may differ from the old fashioned idea of people actually paying for the news they read, but the newspaper wars among the competing franchises are refreshingly the same. London Lite's owners say Murdoch's company stole its business plan for London Lite in starting thelondonpaper, and the pages of each paper are full of content slagging the other side. I love in when newspapers hate each other with the intensity of a thousand suns.

Will the new papers steal readers from the old, established papers, such as the Times or the Telegraph that actually separate Londoners from their pocket change? No, says Stefano Hatfield, editor of thelondonpaper. He wants to reach the 18 to 35s who currently read no newspaper at all.

"This generation never really developed the newspaper habit. Unlike their parents, they didn't get into a long-lasting relationship with any one paper. Instead they tend to get their news from various different sources, in particular the internet.

"We're winning over new readers, so I don't think that will put pressure on the paid-for papers to lower their prices or go free."