Having launched three years ago (when this photo was taken), News International has today announced that following a £12.9m loss, it’s closing down.
Obviously this is sad news for everyone who works there, including the street vendors (although I have mixed feelings about them). But I can’t say that I’m surprised.
First, Associated launched the London Lite as a spoiler vehicle, and so it became something of a battle between the two to see who’s proprietor had deeper pockets. Commuters were unlikely to pick up both of the papers on a regular basis. We’ve obviously entered a recession, and if your product relies 100% on advertising, now’s not a good time for you.
But more obviously, if Rupert Murdoch is truly going to start charging for access to all his newspapers’ websites, then he can’t have his cake and eat it by claiming that news has value to consumers, yet giving away that same news in printed paper form.
Will I miss the London Paper?
No.
It was rubbish.
Dross.
On those few times I picked up a copy, I found that by the next tube stop I’d read everything that was worth reading in it. The news values were low-brow, and it made Metro look postively good. Page after page of “celebrity” coverage, along with dull columns and pointless space fillers.
Not only that, getting through the West End unmolested by distributors was next to impossible. The only thing that could be said for it was that it was better designed than the London Lite.
The London Lite is equally as bad in all other respects of course. And between them they accounted for gargantuan quantities of waste paper on the tube. Despite signs saying not to, people leave the papers on escalators and you just know that when they’re sometimes out of service it’s because of newspapers clogging them up.
So the question is, what will happen to London Lite? Well Associated sold the Standard so it no longer protects that paper – it actively competes with it (using material generated by the Standard themselves under the bizarre deal that was done).
Perhaps the market will sustain one of the two? Or perhaps Associated would quite like to kill off the Standard? If we come out of the recession soon, then it might be a fitter and stronger property.
Metro, I’m sure, is perfectly safe for the time being. But whether London Lite remains open or closes, the Evening Standard has been massively damaged. Many commuters have got out of the habit of paying for a paper. And that’s not a habit that’s easy to get back into.