The Big Smoke

So, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was like Christmas Day over at Time Out Towers yesterday afternoon. That, as news thelondonpaper is to close broke, our faces lit up as if unwrapping a huge box of schadenfreude-gasms. A seemingly virile force on the London listings scene has been felled, proving that editorial integrity will out.

Well, it wasn't like that from where I was sitting. It was more a stunned shock, sympathy for fellow journalists who could be out of a job in a month. The Twitterati were quick to gloat and bitch, as is their want, but I expect the news provoked a sombre ripple through London's media companies – not least because thelondonpaper's demise touches a nerve for us all.

It's not the first time News International has sparked debate in recent weeks. The blogosphere continues to deconstruct Rupert Murdoch's plans to charge people to view his papers’ content online. It's certainly a curious move, when the floodgates to free web content have been taken off their hinges – but, well, at least he's trying something.

No publisher has squared the circle of compatibility between an expectation for free digital content and paid-for (and costly) print distribution. It's up there with a cure for cancer. Where does the money come from, and how to spread it between online and print? Thelondonpaper's failure to turn a profit proves that a free, ad-funded model isn't the solution – and that's what’s worrying.

Its all very well for the Guardian to smugly point out Murdoch's paid-for model doesn't understand the internet, but their own epic losses – £90m and counting – suggest they don't have the answers yet either. Who knows what the Murdoch’s cash-for-content strategy will throw up – it might not be the right idea, but it might lead us closer to finding one.

So free London papers are perhaps a primitive barometer for the state of publishing. To free or not to free? Certainly, the idea that ads can pay for everything is, going by thelondonpaper's losses, not going to end well.

It might be unfashionable not to jump up and down on Murdoch's minions' graves, but perhaps it's time for more reasoned debate amongst publishers and, healthy competition aside, some solidarity?