The Medialyser

The Evening Standard has been struggling against the aggressively distributed freesheets, London Lite & London Paper, but is now rebranding, re-launching, re-trying backed by a healthy stack of rubbles (aka Alexander Lebedev). Like any sound recovery, the patient has to accept it has a problem, before apologising, crawling in the dirt while begging for forgiveness; the paper has taken that quite literally, and launched a costly we-are-sorry campaign. (See photo)

Today they handed out free papers all over London to give readers a taste of a whole new Evening Standard. First, the design has been rejuvenated to appeal to the modern cosmopolitan, albeit a modern cosmopolitan stuck in the 90s. Orange is one of those “daring” colours (implemented to match the London Paper’s “bold” party-purple), which also has a habit of making things look cheap. Especially next to cyan. Second, they have upped themselves and bought some words from none other than Tom Wolfe. Good old Tom, chronically in his white two-piece flannel suit, delivers a tale of extravagant aviation and the hell of public airports experienced by bankers, fallen from top. An odd choice to put this story in the News section, though. Oh well… The content looks promising, except for the fact that Wolfe is gone tomorrow and the front page headline is CITY TYCOON: MY SECRET LOVE LIFE. So we are back to the standard Evening Standard.