HAS LEBEDEV GIVEN IT AWAY?

When the venerable tabloid became a freesheet last Monday, triggering an unseemly scramble for copies among Londoners, the paper’s Russian owner Alexander Lebedev struggled to keep up with demand as the capital ran out of copies by early evening.

Some of the paper’s street vendors, who receive a couple of pennies for each copy they manage to off-load, only added to the atmosphere of chaos by shoving as many as possible into the hands of passers-by.

How ignoble for what was a great London institution, and for the vendors, whose association with the paper goes back generations. There is also no guarantee the great giveaway will be a commercial success.

Lebedev needs to generate an extra £600,000 in advertising revenue a week to make a success of the freesheet, a difficult task considering the state of the market.

Could it be that the former KGB agent will consider an embarrassing U-turn and reinstate a cover price? In the meantime, he faces a possible exodus of staff, due to the paper’s reduced status.

For example, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the Standard’s political whizz Joe Murphy jumps ship when a plum political slot comes up for grabs at another paper.