Search results matching tag 'London Lite'

Associated hits reset button as London Lite set to close

255762 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:25:00 GMT

Associated Newspaper's statement this afternoon that it is likely to close London Lite, hits the reset button for newspapers in the capital. We had three papers for almost three years and now we are back to square one.

With the Evening Standard going free earlier this month it was only a matter of time before London Lite was closed.

Associated says "it has entered a period of consultation over the future of London Lite, its free London evening title, which may result in closure".

I don't think there is any "may" about it. It is tough for the 36 staff, but the future of London Lite and its employees looks sealed to me.

Steve Auckland, managing director, Associated Newspapers Free Division says that "despite reaching a large audience with an excellent editorial format, we are concerned about the commercial viability in this highly competitive area".

I'm sure they have been concerned for sometime, but with theLondonpaper gone there is no reason for it to be.

I don't remember the last time we were here with the London Daily News versus the Evening Standard aided by the resurrected Evening News in 1987, but it looks like that in London, history repeats itself. That's twice within the last few decades we've had three London papers before reverting to one.

One thing is clear we will not (as they say) see their like again. This really is an end moment in the evening/afternoon paper market in this rapidly changing media landscape. There's obviously still lots happening in other areas of the free market with Shortlist (its women's magazine: Stylist - isn't that due any day now?), City AM and TFL issuing its tender for the Metro slot.

In such a busy and competitive market it is a surprise that they lasted as long as they did, but it was an interesting battle to observe.

The free paper was a great experiment and what is perhaps most interesting is that while both London Lite and thelondonpaper are gone, they have left us with a legacy of a free Evening Standard against a desire by the rest of the industry to charge for content.

That strikes me as fascinating. Particularly given the most recent ABC figures for newspapers in the US this week that show the dire state some are in.

I've read and heard a number of people talk about the future of the Evening Standard and how they see the logic and the long term viability of it as a free title. Time will tell, but oddly I miss it as a paid-for title. I've barely seen it since it went free when previously I could pop out to the news agent outside 174 Hammersmith Road and get my copy, but no more.

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Newly reduced, sometimes reused and hardly ever recycled

2114008 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:06:00 GMT

While my thoughts are first and foremost with the people that stand to lose their jobs now thelondonpaper is closing, I can't help but think of all the trees that stand to be saved as a result of this.

We've all seen the state of the tube during and after the morning rush hour; it's impossible to move for discarded Metros, then it’s the same again in the evening with thelondonpaper and London Lite. Now after a certain time these days the Standard becomes free so that's getting strewn all over the place as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the attempts to recycle these papers strikes me as woeful. Yes there are a few filler ads in the papers about recycling but London Underground staff clearly treat them as general rubbish and there are hardly any dedicated newspaper recycling bins around the capital.

I'm not sure who is to blame but it seems as if there was little thought about the environment at the outset of the freebie newspaper war.

Paid content and closing TheLondonPaper

255762 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:05:00 GMT

No one thing killed TheLondonPaper, but one of my first thoughts on hearing the sad news that TheLondonPaper was to close was is this part of Rupert Murdoch's paid content strategy?

The facts are pretty simple: London is the most competitive newspaper market in the world and NI Free Newspapers, which publishes the TheLondonPaper, posted a £12.96m loss this year and £16.48m last year.

Unless there is a radical shift in the economy there is little prospect of TheLondonPaper being profitable any time soon. London Lite doesn't make any money either and even after the withdrawal of its rival it still faces an uphill battle as does The Evening Standard, which leads online with TheLondonPaper's closure (London Lite doesn't have a website).

Whether this will be good news for The Evening Standard is tough to say while London Lite continues to publish. Besides, the Standard had problems long before the arrival of London's evening freesheets.

Given that News Corporation has stated that it intends to charge for all forms of online content, a free newspaper and its free website makes ever less sense. Maybe this is the reason that the website will close along with the print title.

Newspapers are closing around the world and unless publishers are making money out of content increasingly they are not going to publish it.

The closure of TheLondonPaper with its 500,000 copies daily is a radical example of that.

Rupert Murdoch is not usually the one to blink first, and he has in the past clobbered rivals with price wars (the Sun is still 20p), but given the changing economic model for content and the fall in advertising revenues not blinking first no longer makes sense.

For Associated Newspapers it might be a hollow victory. Yes its situation is immediately improved, but there is no change to the weakness of overall market conditions.

In his statement James Murdoch said that the move was about streamlining operations and focusing on its core titles. As News Corp prepares to consider a rollout of paid content it makes perfect sense.

Looking at the TheLondonPaper in light of paid content it looks like a remainder and one that has not been carried.

None of this, of course, makes getting money out of consumers for the content that News Corp plans to charge for any easier, but then we will have to wait and see what it does next. As one thing is for sure, Murdoch is full of surprises.

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A Shortlist and Sport merger?

255762 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:42:00 GMT

According to a report in the Financial Times today, Shortlist and the now defunct free magazine Sport talked at one point about a merger.

The men's free weekly Sport magazine suspended publication last week after its French parent company, Sport Media & Strategy, went into administration.

According to the FT, before its demise, Sport and ShortList held talks over a possible merger but ShortList is understood to have backed away.

You can see it making sense. However, any leap like that, while it brings scale, would also incur extra costs at a time when Shortlist's backers (GLG, the hedge fund; DC Thomson, the Scottish publisher; and French Connection founder Stephen Marks) are sure to be nervous (already dealing with annual losses of £2.7m to August) in the current uncertainty about further exposure.

On paper the combination would have brought together ShortList's 505,970 copies with Sport's 317,257 giving media buyers access to 800,000 large young urban readers. No one else would quite have that audience. Combined, its about five times as large as BBC Three ever got.

The FT quoted Alan Brydon, head of press communication at MPG, saying it would have made an interesting proposition. "They would have an audience of about 850,000 across a Thursday and Friday and that is a very interesting joint sell. But it depends on whether the backers are prepared to do it, whether they are able to."

But right now everything is on hold until we see what happens next. Free magazines cannot rack up losses indefinitely, but if and when the advertising climate improves then there is every reason to expect that the market will bounce back and expand.

The situation is even more acute in the free newspaper market where Thelondonpaper and its rival London Lite are losing money hand over fist.

With the Evening Standard now owned by Alexander Lebedev, you have to wonder how long Associated Newspapers will continue its commitment to London Lite? London can't really support two free evening newspapers. Does it even want to?

Free magazines on the other hand offer more flexibility and more niches to explore. Be it women, entertainment or sport (again). And why not sport again? While Sport Media's effort was good, it was far from being compelling.

Soutar and Shortlist have a three-year plan to become profitable, which he says is ahead of schedule in spite of more "short-term" advertising.

"If you are a mature title with a couple of months visibility, you sweat a little bit but for us that is a marvellous luxury. We are not part of a large and remote company under pressure. It is fair enough to question our business model but we have a critical mass with more than 500,000 copies and a national footprint in 11 UK cities," he told the FT.

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Daily Mirror as a free sheet?

255762 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:35:00 GMT

Piers Morgan has a plan for the survival of the Daily Mirror: make it a freesheet.

Writing in the British Journalism Review Morgan says that every national newspaper will be free within 10 years and that the Daily Mirror should be the first.

Sounds radical doesn't it? But with the Daily Mirror's sales continuing to steadily fall away (1.42m in October down 1.48% for the month) it could happen.

Former Mirror editor Morgan argues that Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey needs to make the radical decision before The Sun beats it to the punch.

"I would make the Daily Mirror free tomorrow, because I don't see any future for it otherwise. If The Sun were to go free tomorrow it would kill the Mirror. It's a horrific position to be in and I'm sure that if Sly Bailey could find a buyer at the right price she'd sell the national titles like a shot."

I'm pretty sure that Bailey has more than a little time to play with. 1.42m is still a big pile of newspapers and the Sun won't be going free any time soon.

It seems likely if any paper will be first to go free it will be the Evening Standard, which continues to face a costly battle against the London freesheet newspapers.

The Evening Standard's circulation might have jumped above 300,000 for the first time in four months in October, but bulks make up more than 40% of its circulation.

Just how much longer can Associated continue to poor money into producing two London evening newspapers? It has already shed staff and stories are shared with London Lite as it battles News International's Thelondonpaper.

As media jobs are cut left right and centre, advertising dries up, it seems highly unlikely that London can continue to sustain three evening newspapers.

I'm convinced that the next seismic shift in British newspapers will come in that market (unless the Independent suddenly gets sold by Independent News & Media to the Daily Mail & General Trust).

Hat tip Press Gazette

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Walking with the dinosaurs: Time Out magazine

255762 — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:19:00 GMT

Time Out boss Tony Elliott has joined that growing band of ranters who like to blame the BBC for all of their woes. It is 2008 and Time Out sells less than 80,000 copies and it is struggling to face the digital future. Of course it must be the BBC's fault.

Elliott might have built a global cottage business out of Time Out, but he has missed several boats in pushing the business forward to ensure its survival in a digital and freesheet world. It is in danger of going the way of dinosaurs.

The magazine now faces one of the most perilous times in its history as a magazine as its main sources of revenue, namely cover price and a rapidly deteriorating advertising market, fall away. Must be the BBC's fault.

The magazine's circulation is down to just over 76,000 copies a fall of 12.5% year on year. That's a hefty fall, but you can understand why. It is a magazine in a city of 7m plus people that very few buy. That problem will only exacerbate.

In an interview with the Guardian today Tony Elliott says "you've got a situation in two to three years where the main role that we play is online ... the question is what shape does the print magazine take?"

In two or three years? That's terribly optimistic in my view. Time Out should already be a free magazine, but with the London freesheets Thelondonpaper and London Lite on the streets and several free magazines (Sport and Shortlist) it is a tough and crowded market with little ad revenue to go around.

It seems that the thinking the magazine is doing now should have been done two years ago not looking two years down the line. Must be the BBC's fault.

Time Out should also already have a great website. It should be the first and only stop for listings in London or elsewhere in the UK. It could have owned free listings across the UK and built up a powerful website. But it hasn't and there are many other places to go and find that information. If Time Out wants to get there now it will have to hustle and muscle to do so and that will be expensive. Time Out doesn't have deep pockets, Elliott is talking about partners, but in a climate where cash is fast drying up they will be hard to find. Must be the BBC's fault.

And that brings us onto the BBC. Elliott goes on in the Guardian interview to vent about BBC Worldwide's acquisition of Lonely Planet, which hits Time Out's own travel guides. He desperately wants to see BBC Worldwide broken up to help boost his business and he tells the paper he thinks this will happen while at the same time saying "I think the BBC is fantastic".

However, the piece in the Guardian goes on to reveal that Some within the BBC believe Elliott's anger is all down to the fact that Time Out and the BBC for several years had talks about making Time Out's listings available to the corporation.

The deal never happened, which is no surprise as Elliott is very hands on and wants to keep control of his business. This can work for him, but it can also work against him as it seems to have done in failing to cut a deal with the BBC.

"BBC Worldwide were not really prepared to entertain, let's call it a joint venture, of any description. Really what they wanted, in the two or three times we talked about it seriously, was to own the business and I was not interested in selling the business. We just never got anywhere and then they went off and bought Lonely Planet, which pissed us off to say the least."

So when he calls for the BBC to be broken up it seems to me that Elliott is a sore loser with an axe to grind. He should have signed the deal when he had the chance.

I for one hope BBC Worldwide is not broken up. I think Lonely Planet was a perfectly legitimate service. It is a business that could work commercially really well for the BBC and the people who use it.

It would be great to see a brand like Time Out survive, but if it fails to innovate it has no right to do so and that is nothing to do with the BBC.

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Life on the streets

255762 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:12:00 GMT

It isn't the worse job in the world, but handing out London's mountain of free papers has to be close, so it's interesting to see what the distributors think of the job themselves in this little documentary.

Every distributor has a story and largely it is an immigrant story, handing out papers while studying or just making ends meet, as really many don't want a proper job with the stresses and strains that come with it.

Most are like Tamin Rahman from Bangladesh, studying while ekeing out some cash to survive on giving out thelondonpaper and London Lite. There are Indians, Nigerians and even a French artist. Sarah Le Roy.

A couple use the word "degrading", which is uncomfortable to hear, as are how rude and occasionally abusive members of the public can be.

What also comes across in this CurrentTV documentary is that they are largely an optimistic bunch who are up off of their arses and doing something, which is a lot more than can be said for some.

Well worth a look.

Thelondonpaper rumour mill

255762 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:12:00 GMT

Take a day off and you miss it. Thelondonpaper to close? It seems unlikely that the Murdochs would abandon the battle and close thelondonpaper, which like its rival London Lite is haemorrhaging piles of cash daily, but would they go for a merger?

Peter Preston in the Observer raised the idea of a merger harking back to when the Evening News and the Evening Standard merged decades earlier.

But while such a decision would make financial sense (thelondonpaper lost £16.5m in the first year of its operation) it would represent a huge loss of faith and essentially hand victory to Associated Newspapers and take the pressure off of the Evening Standard.

Thelondonpaper currently out distributes London Lite by almost 100,000 copies with its circulation of 500,000 and it really seems to show.

Some days I rarely see London Lite. It is not distributed outside my Tube station home (Baron's Court - just down the road from Associated HQ) and on the Tube itself it often looks like a sea of thelondonpaper. Although I am not sure why that is the case as there are usually two of each standing outside the bigger Hammersmith station.

It would be a shame if it did close or merge. Not only does it look better and fresher, but it would obviously lead to journalistic job losses.

That process has already started in a small way over at Associated as Press Gazette reported last week that the London Evening Standard and London Lite have merged their newsdesk operations, leading to the departure of London Lite news editor Michael Leese.

The changes mean Standard news editor Hugh Dougherty will now oversee the news editing of the Evening Standard and London Lite alongside his deputy Steve Vaughan.

It also means that London Lite is even more a shadow of the Evening Standard. You might ask if that really matters when it comes to a freebie evening read? I think it does.

A News International's response to the speculation of closure was to deny it outright and, in doing so, did point to its new shiny Hertfordshire printing plant that represents a £650m investment.

"We intend to build on the success of our market leading national titles and that of thelondonpaper in the years ahead."

Well it would say that, wouldn't it? But when you are making denials no one ever quite believes you, particularly if you have just closed your loss-making magazine division as James Murdoch did.

Many observers read that as a cue that he was willing to take tough decisions and that next on his list was to close the even bigger loss maker that is thelondonpaper.

But look at it another way, maybe he was making a tough call on what was not a core part of News International's business in News Magazines and sell women's weekly title Love it!, as the publisher prepares to dig in for the long-haul battle in the London freesheet market. Newspapers are after all its business.

Thelondonpaper one year on

255762 — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:25:24 GMT

So it's happy birthday to thelondonpaper, the free paper that has livened things up for London's commuters, made a strong play to popularise the colour purple, and is the cause of consternation for sub-editors everywhere.

News International's entry into the free newspaper market probably could not have gone better.

It has shaken up its rival, Associated Newspapers, forcing it to launch its own rather inkier freesheet, London Lite, and rattled The Evening Standard, which has long needed a challenge. The Standard, which Campaign today reports is considering bringing back its listings title Hot Tickets in an effort to boost circulation, is down 15.62% year on year to 275,186.

This challenge was further underlined yesterday, with news that thelondonpaper is to hire Alexa Baracaia, the London Evening Standard's media and showbusiness correspondent, as arts and entertainment editor in November. That has to hurt a little.

There is much to celebrate. Thelondonpaper has come out top in its circulation tussle with London Lite, distributing 500,563 copies in July to London Lite's 400,571, and survived spoiler campaigns to boot.

Yes, there is the spelling of the all lowercase/single word name (thelondonpaper), which causes some confusion, but that is a minor annoyance.

The paper is a good speed read and has always felt fresher and looked more designed than its rival, and now with a deal in hand with Westminster Council over issues of rubbish and recycling the streets should be cleaner as well.

The paper, and its rival for that matter, has added much to the London media market, which along with Metro and City AM seems to be thriving despite speculation by naysayers that the market could not take such launches.

It is also providing unexpected opportunities, as Brand Republic reported earlier this week that News International is using the idea of thelondonpaper's street vendors to sell copies of The Sun, as part of its 20p cover price initiative in London.

Paper chase

255762 — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:38:06 GMT

A fresh war of words has broken out between Associated and News International.

In a statement issued this morning, Associated, which publishes the Evening Standard and London Lite, dismissed claims by rival thelondonpaper as misleading.

It is calling thelondonpaper irresponsible for increasing its print run because of the rubbish that it is creating. It might have a point, but they've both recently been hit by rubbish claims (insert some joke in here about the content).

The two freesheets could face a clampdown after complaints from Westminster City Council about the rubbish generated by the two titles' distribution network in the capital. Apparently, Westminster City Council says an extra three tonnes of waste has been produced daily since. Three tons? I hope that's all for the recycle bin.

"Thelondonpaper has been totally irresponsible in increasing its print run by 100,000 when it is clear that many of the existing free papers are being dumped on the streets, and London boroughs are calling for both newspaper groups to resolve the litter problem caused.

"Increasing distribution is meaningless, unless there is an increase in demand. The most likely outcome of this latest increase in free papers is an increase in litter."

OK, fair enough, but then we really get down to it, Associated claims that recent research it carried out, through Other Lines Of Enquiry, showed that its London Lite is the favoured free afternoon paper, with some 58% of thelondonpaper's readers preferring London Lite.

"London Lite continues to satisfy genuine demand, and executives at the paper are working closely with local councils to maximise recycling and resolve the litter problems."

Associated is clearly rattled and maybe with good reason. In the ABCs last week, News International's thelondonpaper continued to lead in the afternoon circulation war, distributing 436,436 compared with Associated's 400,977 copies of London Lite handed out on the streets of the capital.

That's not all. What this is really about is The London Evening Standard. While the ABCs showed it had bounced back in January (only from December, which is less than a real newspaper month), up 5.1% to sales of 276,562, it remains down year on year by 14.1%.

We that it is really about this as Associated tells us so with the rest of its statement that slates thelondonpaper.

"Furthermore, it is absurd for thelondonpaper to compare itself with the Evening Standard, just as it would be if it tried to compare itself to any of the other quality paid for newspapers. It is like comparing a junk snack with a gourmet meal! [Their exclamation marks, I should add.]

"The Evening Standard sets the agenda for London. It is read by opinion formers, people of influence and ideas. It reaches more AB adults then any other daily paper in London -- just the people advertisers want to reach."

If that wasn't enough, Associated has launched an ad campaign this week for the Standard that hits at thelondonpaper even move. It has someone exiting a Tube and dropping it through the gap.

Irked much? I guess so.

UPDATE: Did I say rattled? News International has just put this statement out in response.

"The Standard are clearly rattled. It's a desperate act to cast aspersions on free newspapers, when Associated own both Metro and Lite. Does this suggest a long-term future for Lite? Londoners are deserting the Standard in droves, with 28% less buying the paper in January than in the previous year*. The ABC shows that twice as many people are now picking up thelondonpaper as buying the Standard."

*(Source: ABC Jan 2007 Vs. Jan 2006 net circ excl. bulks).