Battle of the shrinking giants

The redtops' black September

September, the prime month for circulation churn and change, comes with white knuckles and white faces attached. Take the three big questions of 2006 - how goes the London freesheet war/the redtop tabloid decline/the top-end tabloid prize fight? - and you begin to get answers from the latest ABC returns that put facts in place of propaganda.
Fact one is that the Evening Standard's London Lite free paper distributed a certified 359,000 copies a day, not far short of its 400,000 target, while thelondonpaper, from Wapping, dished out 327,000 (and started gathering steam). The battle of the frees was fully joined; both sides are close to target. And this scrap won't be won on physical distribution now. It will be advertising take, accreted over many more months, that decides. Nevertheless, there may be one loser already.

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