The Indy

The Independent Newspaper has been sold, it is reported. For £1.

The Independent started out in 1986. Then, Mrs Thatcher was a towering figure whom many felt needed to be challenged. Of the broadsheets, the Financial Times was thought to be right wing, the Telegraph was thought to be Mrs Thatcher and the Conservatives' in-house journal and the Guardian was thought to be putting people off by being too left wing. It was believed there was room for a largely middle of the road, but independent, voice.

Much has changed since then. The FT came out for Kinnock in 1987, the Telegraph moved to the left after 1997 and the Guardian got more readable. The Independent was squeezed. There had all along been a slight left wing bias and this became more pronounced. It lost readership numbers dramatically; it is thought full price sales may be as little as 100,000, whereas more than 500,000 are needed to make money.

Some say the new owner, Alexandr Lebedev, will make it a free paper, as he has the Evening Standard. The other broadsheets are dreading this because at the moment they are supplying huge amounts of content online free of charge and were hoping to move to a part subscription service.

I wish the Independent well, although I cannot say I have ever really liked it. It will be worth keeping an eye on in the next few months.