News International’s London freesheet thelondonpaper is to close next month with the possible loss of 60 jobs.
Since launching in 2006 the paper has achieved a circulation of 500,348, however it made a pre-tax loss of £12.9 million in the year ending June 29th on a turnover of £14.1 million.
Announcing the move James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive, Europe and Asia, News Corporation, said: “The team at thelondonpaper has made great strides in a short space of time with innovative design and a fresh approach but the performance of the business in a difficult free evening newspaper sector has fallen short of expectations.”
“We have taken a tough decision that reflects our priorities as a business.”
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Mayor of London Boris Johnson said he hoped “there will continue to be a fine tradition of vigorous, unpartisan journalism in this city.”
TawkinSenz says
This is the best news I have heard all recession!
Good riddance I say – never have I read such trash in the newspaper world (maybe because I don’t read the Sun / sport etc)
I seriously question the value of a paper which is often read by the young (because it’s free) – but which is full of such selfish sentiment.
I seriously question whether the letters page was from reader or whether it was ‘composed’ by the journalists – I cannot believe that real people actually think in that way.
None of the free papers gives a balanced view of the news and most of them simply prey on peoples fears and anxieties – usually targetting the ‘state scroungers’ and immigrants for the cause of all our problems.
How funny it is that we now realise the real ‘state scroungers’ all sit in Westminster and that the immigrants were encouraged to come by unscrupulous businessesmen who didn’t want to pay the legal minimum wage and needed foreign labour which is easier to exploit.
Whilst I feel sorry for the 60 people who may loose their jobs, I can only do this in proportion to the 2.5 million who already have.
Just to finish off this hilarious piece, the good old mayor steps in and says the he hopes:
“there will continue to be a fine tradition of vigorous, unpartisan journalism in this city.”
News international – unbiased?
Now the mayor is really showing how out of touch he is, or maybe the multitude of factually incorrect stories within the London paper which later required apologies (which were so small you could hardly read them) we a reflection of what Boris thinks is ‘vigorous and unpartizan’.
I guess it’s only unpartizan when you are on the same side of the fence – eh Boris?
A casual observer says
‘In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Mayor of London Boris Johnson said he hoped “there will continue to be a fine tradition of vigorous, unpartisan journalism in this city.”’
Did he manage to keep a straight face when he came out with that classic line?
Tim says
I’m glad as this will also surely mean the end of the London Lite.
This business model of using hugh amounts of paper, and then paying people to shove a copy into the hand of anyone walking past was bonkers.
The costs were hugh, the distributors positioned themselves in the way, and the tube/buses/trains at night were always full of disgarded copies.
The web is a much better place to use, allowing a varity of views without the costs of a dead-wood copy.
Damian Hockney says
The problem, Tim, with ‘the web’ for London news is that people will only really use it in conjunction with established media…like the Standard for example. Free newspapers are very far from a bonkers business model and they have worked very well in many places. In fact, free papers are not about news very much – they are about advertising and when times were good, free papers did very well. When they are not, and advertising is down, then they are very bad. In fact, a large number of paid circulation papers rely almost totally upon advertising…and it might be argued that they are not about news very much either! You mention waste – there is actually as much ‘waste’ with the printing of paid circulation papers as there is with freebies…apart from the obvious point that they all end up in the bin.
Tim says
My comment about the business model being bonkers was mainly aimed at the number of people trying to get you to take one. I could see that a model where papers were left in stacks for people to pick up (like the metro) might work. But people pushing them into your hand every hundred meters in central London, was always going to be too expensive.
I agree that most paid for papers are taken home, and hopefully end up in the recycling. With the free papers taking only 5 mins to read, they generally seem to be abandoned on the Bus/Train/Tube. When I am traveling late it always seems to be the free papers scattered all over the place.
In 2006 when they started on only three lines there was a 6 1/2 tonne increase in rubbish.
“typically 9.5 tonnes are picked off trains each day now, compared with three tonnes in the past” http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/11/4
Damian Hockney says
Tim, all points taken but sadly even if some of the paper may “end up in the recycling” it may not actually be recycled!! No one seems to want paper at the moment, so much of it is sat in expensive and vast warehouses consuming energy (and will probably end up in landfill or being incinerated). The difference between “sorted for recycling” and actually “recycling”…but that’s another point. Sadly, when you come to audit take-up of free papers for advertisers (the driving force for all freebies obviously), you cannot just leave stacks of them around – you do have to hand them to someone. The audit process is becoming more and more complex and sophisticated. Otherwise your claims about circulation are discounted as a form of dumping and the advertisers will not use the paper! Having had to complete returns myself for both paid and free titles, I know what this is like. Every year it gets more detailed and complicated.
TawkinSenz says
The concept of the free paper merely shows the value of controlling peoples opinions over the environment. Once again the ‘market’ left out the ‘true cost’ of producing millions of pointless papers everyday which were discarded by most people.
Luckily my cat made very good use of them as they make good emergency litter – or to go under the actual litter.
The free papers are completely partizan, with 1 being run by the DMG, one by News international and one by the Evening standard – which until recently was owned by the DMG.
Just like Frankie Goes To Hollywood said – ‘two tribes go to war’
Good riddance to bad rubbish – I hope the Metro is next and also the Lite. I’m sure hundreds of tube cleaners will be glad to see the back of the free paper concept.
TawkinSenz says
I picked up a copy of the last edition – hoping it might be worth something some day as a collectors piece.
After seeing most of the paper was taken up with pictures of ‘the production team’ and fake letters and texts from people saying ‘how they cannot live without the London paper in their lives’ – I decided to throw it in the recycling bin where it might be a bit more useful.