London is to get another free magazine this month aimed at wealthy city workers.
In-Debate will be handed out at tube stations and is expected to be on the streets by the end of September, providing readers with information on key issues in the news, alongside a listings guide with a bias towards intellectual events such as talks, debates and book readings.
Initially it will only target readers at Bank, Moorgate, Liverpool Street, Embankment and Westminster, and will have a print run of 10,000 copies, but it plans to increase distribution to 60,000 at 20 central London stations.
In-Debate will join a host of freebies in the capital, including City AM, Metro, Sport, Shortlist, Stylist, and, of course, the London Evening Standard, which is approaching its first anniversary as a freesheet.
While all of these titles appear to be doing well – just this week Stylist boasted that its distribution had increased by 2.8% since the last ABC period – is another new title needed? More importantly, will it deal another blow to independent readers in central London?
Many of those in the city say the Standard switching to free distribution has damaged their sales and footfall, so could this title hurt them further by stealing away news and current affairs magazine readers? Or will it even manage to get noticed by busy workers bombarded with free titles each morning?
