Back in June I made this bet:
I’m willing to bet one of you 50 pounds that one of the major UK newspapers will go completely free within three years.
In fact, I’ll narrow it slightly to the following titles:
The Guardian
The Independent
The Times
The Daily Telegraph
Financial Times
The Sun
Daily Mail
Daily Express
Daily MirrorSo I bet fifty quid that one of the those papers goes free within three years. Anyone fancy a flutter?
And before the year’s out, it appears the Independent is edging ever closer to going online-only. Now, of course, I my bet wasn’t that they’d go online. Rather, it was that they’d have a free print edition. So it’s not quite there yet, but it’s interesting to note that amongst all the redundancies, relocations and cutbacks, humble freesheet Metro is having a makeover in time for Monday. It turns over a profit.
Nigel Barlow took me up on the bet.
And now that the Indy is moving to Northcliffe House — and sharing the same subs that put together the Mail, as well as being only two doors up from the aforementioned Metro — I reckon there’ll be a free print edition very soon. This time next year.
