The proposed closure of the London Lite last week brought to an end a bizarre period for the evening newspaper sector in London.

Associated Newspaper's Lite publication was created to defend the Evening Standard from News International's thelondonpaper, which Rupert Murdoch had originally launched as a freesheet to topple the paid-for Standard.

Yet over the course of just three years, the Standard has been sold to a newcomer in UK publishing and now become a freesheet, and thelondonpaper has closed, having made a substantial loss, with the London Lite following soon after.

Ironically, Murdoch launched thelondonpaper because he believed that freesheets were the future of publishing. He had long held the view that the future of newspapers laid in advertising revenue rather than cover price. However, the recession, which has severely hit newspapers'  advertising revenues, has blown that model apart.

Charging options
By the time Associated Newspapers announced that the Evening Standard would once again stand alone as the capital's evening newspaper, Murdoch was claiming that his websites, as well as his newspapers, would be charging within the next 12 months.

It would appear that Murdoch, for so long the leader in the world of publishing, does not know exactly where newspapers are heading. And if he doesn't know, what hope is there for anybody else?

Across the globe, publishers are beginning to look at the way newspapers are distributed. Ideas may vary, but the overall picture is one of change.

One of the most interesting attempts to diversify in the past few months has been the Berlin-based Niiu Project. Two young entrepreneurs have teamed up with a printer and publishers, including The New York Times, to offer a completely bespoke newspaper for readers.

The scheme enables users to register online and select elements of different newspapers to be combined into one. For example, if used in the UK, a reader could specify the business section of The Times, the sport section of The Sun and the entertainment section of the Daily Mirror. And, if the person is originally from Australia for example, news from the Sydney Morning Herald could also be included.

The idea is an interesting one from an advertisers' perspective too - Niiu learns about a person's interests from links to their social networking sites on sign-up, allowing it to develop highly targeted advertising. For example, if the user is part of a Facebook group about skiing, their printed papers will feature related adverts.

Wanja Oberhof, creator Niiu, says: "Young people have grown up with the internet - I have all sorts of information on my bookmarks. Why not have the best of both worlds?"

World in action
Elsewhere in the world, new initiatives have been launched to combat the current slump in newspaper revenues. In Switzerland for example, many publishers are allowing subscribers to pick and choose what sections of the newspaper they want - paying accordingly. And, in the US, many publishers are choosing to drop print all together. However, according to a report carried out for Unigraphical, this is a trend that may now be reversing, with many internet-only publishers launching paper products to complement their websites.

Closer to home, publishers are being a little less radical. News International has recently launched Times+, an "added value" element of The Times. It is designed to encourage users to subscribe to the newspaper, gaining add-ons from the website in the process. It appears to be a move by the publisher towards the European culture of subscription newspapers, which allows the publisher to offer more targeted advertising.

Regional worries
Local newspapers are also having to adapt to stay alive. Last month, Trinity Mirror Midlands announced that its Birmingham Post title would become a weekly rather than a daily. Trinity hopes that the title will interact more closely with its associated website.

Local newspapers have been closing at an alarming rate in the UK over the past few years and many titles that haven't closed have instead become freesheets. But what the recession has taught publishers is that it is not a sustainable model to rely on advertising alone.

For printed newspapers, it seems that the timing of the economic crisis could not have been worse. Even before the recession took hold, many were struggling  and having to develop new, more financially viable, ways of working. While the recession has forced most industries to stop growing, in the publishing industry, it has forced publishers to experiment and develop new models.

While many publishers are waiting for the recession to recede, there are ways in which their products can stand out from the crowd. The next few years will prove crucial as newspapers seek to realign themselves in today's modern world.