Another City freebie

Workers in and around the Farringdon area this week will have noticed a new addition to the already dizzying array of free newspapers and magazines on offer just outside the tube station in the morning rush. The latest arrival is City AM, a 24-page tabloid-sized paper which calls to mind the front pages of the FT, but with nicer pictures. Hilariously, the paper's motto is "Business with Personality", written in al caps in a serious, no-nonsense font that's so small and personality-free you could be forgiven for missing it altogether.

Still, from what I've seen, the actual journalism is pretty solid, and considering I cover a fairly specialised field, I was pleased to discover that there were a few items that even I could make use of.

The competition for the more established papers just keeps on intensifying, though. At last count, when making the trek from boyfriend's place near Tower Hill, I was able to pick up at least four if not five free papers or magazines on my way to work in Farringdon: Metro, Nine-to-Five, City AM, Miss London, and the free edition of the Evening Standard at lunch time. When will it end?! How much information can one person digest, especially when the vast majority of those targeted by these rags are City workers who will spend much of the day surfing free news websites anyway! The mind boggles.