Standard in first rise since 2005

The London Evening Standard sold an average of 291,150 copies each weekday in September, its first year on year increase since July 2005.
The afternoon paid-for paper's increase of 0.66% on September 2006 showed it is fighting back against the afternoon freesheets, the London Paper and London Lite, which launched in August and September last year.

The 50p Standard, which has just launched a modest redesign, experienced a strong sales rise of 4.9% on August, which it attributed to several scoops about Madeleine McCann.

"The paid-for figure is up 9.7% month on month due to a very strong news month for the Evening Standard helped by several breaking news exclusives," the paper said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the Standard - owned by Associated Newspapers - began a major marketing and circulation push, launching the Eros card, a free electronic payment system it is rolling out during October and November.

This week it also launched 1000, a magazine listing the 1,000 most influential people in London.

Associated Newspapers' free morning paper Metro started to distribute an additional 205,000 copies in London last month, adding 250 new stations to its distribution network.

Metro distributed a total of 636,841 copies in the greater London area, a rise of 16.43% month on month.

Nationally Metro circulated 1,228,950 free copies last month, up 10.49% on August.

As part of its plan to increase distribution by 250,000 copies Metro distributed 45,000 extra copies in eight other editions - for Merseyside, the north-east, the north-west, Scotland, south Wales, the south-west, the Midlands and Yorkshire.

The freesheet is now available in London, Brighton, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Bristol, Bath, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff and in terms of circulation is the fourth largest national daily newspaper.

After it shut for several weeks over the summer, City AM, the independent business freesheet, rebuilt its London distribution to hand out an average of 99,108 copies during September.

Associated's London Lite distributed 401,855 copies daily, a slight fall of 1.09% month on month.

London Lite's News International rival, the London Paper, distributed 491,706 copies last month, an increase of 50.3% on September 2006. This was a slight drop of 0.85% on August.

Stephen Brook
Friday October 12, 2007
The Guardian