Personal website of journalist Jonathan Walker

Evening Standard bribes readers to "buy" two copies

Tuesday, 20 January 2009 18:30 Written by Jonathan Walker

Every so often I buy two copies of the Evening Standard. Not different editions, with different stories, but identical copies of the same paper.

This is because the Standard has gone one better than offering free copies. It actually bribes potential readers to take the paper away.

In some branches of WH Smith (and elsewhere, for all I know) you get £1 off a magazine if you also buy the Standard for 50p, effectively giving you a free copy of the paper and 50p off the magazine.

Now, I always get a copy of the Standard while I am at the office in Westminster. It's as much a national paper as a local London paper, and even though most of the stories I write are focused on the West Midlands, it makes sense for me to know what the national papers are saying.

Having skimmed through it at work, I might take it on the Tube with me to Waterloo, where I catch the train home. And sometimes I'll stop in Waterloo's WH Smith to pick up something to read for the train journey.

I know I can save money on magazines by grabbing a second copy of the newspaper here, but I don't. I'm not a great environmentalist, but I can still see how wasteful this is, even if I stand to save 50p.

But there are assistants roaming the shop (employed I suspect by the Standard rather than WH Smith) who look out for people buying magazines, and thrust a copy of the paper into your hands before you reach the till. They do this even if they can see that you already have a copy of the Standard under your arm - and even if you point this out to them, and explain that you don't need two newspapers.

Weak-willed as I am, I'm afraid that in these circumstances I just accept the paper and the 50p saving. It saves me money, and presumably boosts the Standard's circulation, but it can't do much for the environment.