Independent News & Media have confirmed the sale of the Independent, the Independent on Sunday and its associated websites to Russian Alexander Lebedev. The Independent will be the second British newspaper purchase for Lebedev who bought the London Evening Standard in January 2009.
The acquisition brings to an end months of speculation that the two titles would be sold to the Russian, and puts Lebedev in the unique position of owning a national morning daily title and a London afternoon free sheet.
A newspaper cannot be judged on copy sales alone, but when it comes to evaluating a title’s relevance and influence, there is still no better barometer. The daily circulations at the Independent in particular have tumbled more than 20% to February’s low of 183,547, and over a quarter of those were heavily discounted bulk copies.
At its launch, The Independent introduced a genuinely ‘independent’ positioning and was a breath of fresh air in a highly politicised press market. And although the Independent still tries today, it no longer has the critical mass – a possible factor in its declining circulation from a healthy peak of 400k + in the early 90s.
Whilst total newspaper revenues are in growth during the first quarter of 2010, the Sunday market is in decline. This would seem to suggest there remains opportunity for the dailies, but is it the nail in the coffin for the Sunday edition of the Independent?
The Independent may still have a future. So far, Lebedev has delivered on his promises for the Evening Standard – in particular, circulation and readership are up (the paper is now of course given away for free). With mass being so abundantly important, the main objective surely must be to grow the Independent’s numbers. Does this mean slashing cover price from the current £1? And would this reduction be sufficient to entice consumer purchase?
Or will Lebedev follow the lead of the Evening Standard and make the Independent the first quality national free paper?
