History of mass media - two landmarks in UK media

For those interested in the development of media (decline of mass media - rise of new media) in the UK, the past week has been particularly noteworthy.  Earlier in the week the IAB (an excellent resource on most aspects of e-commerce, nationally and globally) announced that online advertising overtook TV advertising in the UK for the first time. The first major economy where this has occurred.  The internet is now the single largest recipient of advertising across all types of media with newspapers - regional and national - having been passed in 2006, according to a report in the FT.

On Friday it was announced that the Evening Standard, the London afternoon and evening newspaper, was adopting a free model starting on Monday 5th October, giving up the 50p daily charge and £12M of subscription revenue, and so becoming, as far as I am aware, the first major city anywhere in the world to adopt this model.   One question I have not seen answered is how is it going to be distributed as I am assume that small shops are not going to provide space for its distribution as they get nothing in return.  This move will not be popular with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and other newspaper owners as it must result in a further downgrading of the value of traditional mass media brands on their balance sheets.