Born Free: Why the freesheets’ law of the jungle is a joke

Two men are crossing the Serengeti when one stops in his tracks and says: “Jonathan, stop where you are…we’re being watched by a lion”.

Sure enough through the long grass the men make out the attentive ears and eyes of a hungry looking lion, guarding his pride and edging closer, staying low to the ground as it stalks the two men.

Slowly the men begin to back away, and as they do one notices the other is kicking off his walking shoes and reaching into his backpack for a pair of running shoes.

“Jonathan, what are you doing, you’ll never outrun that thing, with or without running shoes.”

“I don’t need to outrun it Rupert. I just need to outrun you,” he says.

Why am I telling this rather old joke? Because The Metro has today announced 30 job cuts amid growing speculation also about the future of the London Lite, the Daily Mail & General Trust’s evening free-sheet.

Was the DMGT trying to outrun the economy, or just outrun Rupert Murdoch’s London Paper for as long as it could or as long as it needed to?