What A Free Evening Standard Did For Me

And as we move through the paper, it’s all celebrity tat, with a smattering of real news. Gordon Ramsey has a new PR person! Wow! Hold the presses! [Some banker has had to knock £22m off his house price](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23688509-details/Banker%27s+bargain%3A+£22m+knocked+off+house+price/article.do). What a shame. [Duffy has made thousands from a track](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23688698-details/Duffy+makes+£100%2C000+from+Mercy+royalties/article.do)? Startling stuff.

This is not a newspaper for me. It’s full of details of the lives of people far richer than me, whom I’m deeply uninterested in, and celeb gossip that’s done better by the magazines. In fact, its content is far too close to that of the evening free sheets for their to be any point in paying for it.

A quick, deeply unscientific poll of the 13 people around me on my train home from Canon Street showed 3 reading the free Standard, 8 reading other free sheets, one reading a book and one reading something on their phone. Not a good omen for tomorrow, when you have to pay for the Standard…