Independent could go free in London
The Independent could go free within the M25, owner Evgeny Lebedev said in his first interview since buying the paper.
He told the Financial times: “We will have to do something. The Independent can’t stay in its present form because it will continue losing money.”
He added that this could include merging some of the Independent‘s operations with the London Evening Standard, which he bought in 2009.
The Independent and its sister title on Independent on Sunday made a combined loss of £12.4 million in 2009.
“I don’t think bettering journalism is the only way forward in trying to build its success,” he said.
“It has to be the business model. Whether finding synergies between the two papers, or a partial giveaway, or maybe smaller changes that would then amount to something that would be substantially felt in the business model of the paper.”
Lebedev also indicated that the decision to take the Evening Standard free last year could be paying off.
Despite forgoing £14 million in circulation revenue, in recent weeks advertising revenue has exceeded the combined advertising and circulation revenue generated in the same weeks a year ago.