London Overground to provide free WiFi

The Cloud has signed a contract with London Overground to provide free WiFi access at each of its train stations, a move that comes as free urban newspaper Metro launches a marketing campaign to promote its tablet editions.

Metro

Commuters on the London Overground network will be able to access 60 minutes of free WiFi each day once the service begins to roll out across all of its 56 stations this summer.

The announcement comes in the same month Virgin Media won a five year contract with the Greater London Authority to provide WiFi across the London Underground network.

One media expert said the rollout of such services will have a “material impact” on free newspapers and magazines such as Metro, City AM, Evening Standard and Shortlist.

Freemium publishers, however, argued that connectivity on the tube could be beneficial to their publications rather than a threat because it would open up more opportunities for interactive content and advertisements.

One such freemium publisher, Associated Newspapers, will launch a marketing campaign today (26 March) to promote its Metro tablet edition, designed to reach an audience outside of its usual morning commuter print distribution.

The campaign will include digital outdoor activity across 10 of London’s busiest train stations, encouraging commuters to take a picture of that day’s tablet edition front page in order to stand a chance of winning a tablet device and having their name “appear in lights” across London stations.

Ads will also run on Spotify, via in-app advertising across the Ad Mobile Network and across Metro’s own offline and digital media assets.

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