Desmond, proprietor of Express Newspapers, is set to launch an evening daily freesheet, called the London Evening Mail or Evening Mail, this year to challenge Associated's Evening Standard.
One of his biggest challenges, however, is likely to be where and how the paper will be distributed. Associated, which also publishes the Daily Mail, has signed exclusive distribution contracts with London's underground and mainline stations when it launched its morning freesheet Metro four years ago.
This is not the first time Associated's dominance over the distribution of local freesheets in London has been called into question.
Metro International, which distributes freesheets around the world, also failed to launch in London because of Associate's stranglehold over the market.
It even deterred Rupert Murdoch from launching a twice-daily freesheet. Murdoch's plans were thwarted last May when he failed to secure a distribution deal with Railtrack, even though its £4m bid was believed to have been three times what Associated paid.
Most recently, London mayor Ken Livingstone attacked Associated's monopoly in the market in a letter to the Independent. "The Standard controls the morning and evening London newspaper game and owns the advertising market in that sector. The absence of competition deprives the consumer of any power. It is in the nature of such private monopolies that they will exploit their unassailable position to their financial gain," Livingstone said.
Associated has not taken Desmond's plans to launch a rival to its Metro newspaper lying down. It has won an interim injunction against Express Group preventing it from using the name "Mail" in the masthead in a bid to protect the name of its national tabloid the Daily Mail. However, it is not thought that this will stick.
Dummies of Desmond's London Evening Mail are believed to have been sent out and he is not expected to give up the name without a fight.
Associated is also believed to be planning to launch a tabloid to rival Desmond's Daily Star in another attempt to get back at Desmond.
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