Associated Newspapers of Britain may drop London Evening Standard cover price.

By Jessica Hodgson, The Business, London Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 19--The London Evening Standard could become a freesheet and see editorial integration with its sister paper Metro under options being examined by publisher Associated Newspapers.

Scrapping the cover price is an option, say insiders, despite the company's official denials -- but Associated is also looking at introducing a cover price of 10 pence and 20 pence for certain editions of the paper which has a circulation of 368,000, a 50,000 drop in 12 months.

One idea would be closer integration of the Standard's editorial with its morning freesheet Metro, followed by …