News International, the owner of The Times, launched thelondonpaper yesterday in a head-to-head challenge to Associated Newspapers’ London Lite.

Media buyers said that the battle between London’s two new free evening newspapers, both targeting 18 to 34-year-old readers, could end up as a fight to the finish because there are not enough young readers to go round.

Steve Goodman, managing director of print trading at WPP’s Group M, said he was worried about the scale of promises made by each side. Both News International and Associated are guaranteeing advertisers that they will distribute 360,000 papers each evening.

“When you talk about those sort of figures, and when you factor in the Standard’s sale of about 300,000, a market of around one million is a big ask in the evening,” Mr Goodman said. “Both free papers are trying to target fairly similar audiences.”

That view is unlikely to please News International or Associated, who are staking millions on the battle, but not everybody shares it. Jim Marshall, chairman of Starcom UK, part of France’s Publicis, said that there were “five million commuters in and out of London — a huge potential market”, arguing that the capital could support a host of titles.

Other big cities in Europe support multiple titles: there are several freesheets in both Paris and Madrid, although neither France nor Spain has a national newspaper market as competitive as that in the UK. Including Associated Newspapers’ Evening Standard, there are 11 daily newspapers and, as The Sportsman found, that can be enough to crowd out competitors.

What isn’t clear is how well the Evening Standard, whose losses run into single-digit millions, will fare. Associated sources claimed yesterday that last’s week’s launch of London Lite had no impact on its circulation but, anecdotally, sellers of the Standard admitted yesterday that sales had suffered with both freesheets on the street.

The price of the Evening Standard was increased by 25 per cent to 50p in an attempt to protect revenues, although Steve Auckland, the executive responsible for London Lite, said that the Standard had more gravitas and was aimed at London’s decision-makers. The paid-for title’s circulation area is far broader — and it sells only 100,000 in the narrow Central London area targeted by the two freesheets.

Advertisers are always keen to reach younger audiences, which paid-for newspapers are struggling to offer — telecoms advertisers such as BT, T-Mobile and NTL appeared yesterday, while the back page of thelondonpaper advertised a musical.

Meanwhile, the morning success of Metro — owned by Associated Newspapers — has removed the stigma of freesheets. “The concern with any bulk giveaways is that people pay less attention. But there are growing exceptions to these rules,” said Mr Goodman.

With the real battle likely to come over the winter months, it is hard to see both freesheets ending up with an equal share of the evening market. But, given that both News International and Associated Newspapers are long-term newspaper owners, a lot of money is likely to be spent before the outcome becomes clear.

THE COMPETITION

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