What will we pay for top quality content?

The London Evening Standard became a free newspaper on Monday, October 12. The paper has abandoned its cover price of 50p and increased its daily circulation to 600,000 copies.

Loyal readers may well fear that the quality of writing in the paper will deteriorate with the newspaper becoming freely available. The Standard hopes that by becoming a free paper and greatly increasing its circulation it will be able to attract increased advertising revenue. The Managing Director of the Evening Standard, Andrew Mullins, told The Guardian that: "without removing the cover price, a dwindling circulation was inevitable."

Unlike its competitors, such as the Metro, the Standard has maintained that it will retain its heavy hitting columnists and writers. Articles in its competitors publication routinely appear without a bye-line acknowledging the journalist responsible for the piece. In fairness, other well established and respected publications like The Economist do not either.

The Standard was first published back in 1827. The Evening Standard arrived in 1859.

The way that we consume news and information has been revolutionized by the Internet. When once there were a few established news sources in the UK now there are numerous different ways of keeping with what's going on in the world.

Similarly, the way we digest information about a place as a sightseer is changing, too. Where once visitors were restricted to guide books, newspapers reviews and guided bus or walking tours, now they can enjoy the freedom to enjoy some of London's most popular attractions and ares on their own terms.

Independent minded travellers can discover more about the history of Fleet Street with the Ride & Stride audio walking tour. Fleet Street was the birth place of the regular printed press in England.

The introduction of new technologies, principally computer typesetting saw the major newspapers vacate Fleet Street. Journalists continue to use the name Fleet Street to invoke the headquarters of the British press, even though Reuters - the last of the major news agencies/papers to occupy premises on the Street - moved out four years ago.

There are five Walk Talk Tours of London. All of which are available in English, French, German and Spanish. Each audio guide costs just £5.95 and is downloadable in MP3 format.

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