A few short years ago it would have been hard to imagine the Evening Standard being handed out free. But the age of the freesheets has radically changed the publishing playing field. Mainstream titles are waging their own price wars in print and online, and looking for ever more radical ways to attract the fickle newspaper buyer – from wallcharts and CDs to winning Stonehenge (well a sunrise there, at least!). But for the freesheets it is a battle of volume; a battle that claimed thelondonpaper as its most recent casualty.

If freesheets are to generate the ad sales required to allow them to continue printing, then consistently appealing to a broad audience is essential. It will be interesting to see how the Evening Standard, which has always cultivated a relatively young, upmarket readership, balances the needs of the commercial department with the editorial integrity on which it has built its reputation.

Mike Ironside, chief executive of the National Readership Survey was at Eulogy! last week and asked us whether we felt our newspapers had a unique voice. Without a doubt, the room replied. It is clear that newspapers are still a national passion. Over the course of a week, three quarters of the UK population reads a newspaper, and half of us are still buying a Sunday paper.

If the Evening Standard can make the free model work, then it is going to put serious pressure on rival titles that are still hanging on to their cover price. But how long can the free model prosper? In this case, the power really is in readers’ hands. If we’re not willing to pick the freesheets up, then the advertisers will follow suit.

Like many others, I have found the evening journey rather empty since thelondonpaper departed and the Evening Standard, which has a distinctly different voice to London Lite and other freesheets, is undoubtedly a welcome addition for commuters and advertisers alike.

I found myself in the minority when proclaiming that Freeview was my preferred choice.  Ignoring the gasps and cries of ‘Luddite’ which followed I went on to make the point that, to me, paid-for digital TV services simply deliver too much choice.

This got me wondering whether the changing, digitised media landscape is such a good thing. 

The assumption is that consumers want more choice; but whether this is true or not, the provision of more choice brings its own consequences.  In the television industry the traditional ad-funded model is failing, or at least stalling, because of dropping revenue, audience fragmentation, the need to expand output in the face of reduced budgets, and competition from the internet.  As a result consumers do have greater choice but quality is undoubtedly beginning to suffer. 

But aside from this there is an even greater issue.  What will these changes mean to the thousands of people who are currently employed in television production?

The term Luddite  comes from a period in British history when the Industrial Revolution threatened the livelihoods of everyday people.  Even the most ardent supporter of the new digital age and the myriad choices it brings can’t deny the similarities between the plight of those eighteenth century textile workers and the uncertain future of many in the media today.

As we handle PR for both ABC and the National Readership Survey, we have immediate access to the tools that tell us national newspapers are continuing their spiral of decline. There are some short-term blips to this trend, and not every title is suffering, but overall it’s a bleak background.

Traditionally left-leaning titles such as The Guardian, The Observer and especially The Independent are struggling. In the case of the former, the journalist suggested editorial was beginning to cosy up to the Conservative front bench in a bid to stem the backlash for its long-term Labour support, should the Tories triumph at the next General Election.

Be that as it may, the death of any quality national newspaper (as our guest pointed out, the recent swap to Berliner formats more or less rendered the term ‘broadsheet’ obsolete) should not be taken lightly. In the same way that a whole town goes into mourning if its football club goes bust, so a title’s loyal readers would feel let down.

For PR folk, a healthy press is vital for the basic element of our job: placing stories in print. Newspapers also continue to be a central plank of the wider media community, not least planning and buying. And for the UK as a whole, the nationals remain a vital defence against political excess. It would be a tragedy if a great swathe of the publishing middle ground was doomed by the rise of rolling TV news and the appetite for quick-hit online updates.