The ''London Daily News'' was a short-lived London

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

owned by

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early in his life, Maxwell escaped from N ...

. It was published from 24 February to 23 July 1987.

History

The ''London Daily News'' was intended to be a "24-hour" paper challenging the local dominance of the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

''. "For the city that never sleeps, the paper that never stops", ran the promotional slogan. The ''Standard''’s owners,

Associated Newspapers DMG Media (stylised in lowercase) is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at Northcliffe House in ...

, responded by reviving the ''

Evening News Evening News may refer to: Television news *''CBS Evening News'', an American news broadcast *''ITV Evening News'', a UK news broadcast *'' JNN Evening News'', a Japanese news broadcast *''Evening News'', an alternate name for '' News Hour'' in so ...

'' at a lower price to squeeze the ''London Daily News'' out of the market. A price war ensued finishing with the ''London Daily News'' selling at 10p and the ''Evening News'' at 5p. Maxwell was dismissive when he heard about the cut-price ''Evening News''. He told the BBC: "The ''Evening Standard'' and Lord Rothermere are so worried about their monopoly – which the ''London Daily News'' is finally breaking – and so scared about the huge demand for our paper, that they've brought out a cheapo ''Evening News'', which is really a joke." After the ''London Daily News'' collapsed, The ''Evening Standard''s publishers, Associated Newspapers, continued the ''Evening News'' for some months as a separate brand, aiming for a more downmarket readership than the ''Evening Standard'' before re-absorbing it into its sister publication and former rival. The ''London Daily News'' was the first home of the '' Alex'' cartoon, later published by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' and the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''. Maxwell admitted defeat on 25 July 1987 an hour after paying undisclosed damages to Associated Newspapers for accusing it of lying about the ''Evening Standard''s circulation figures. Starting the ''London Daily News'', which published four editions a day, had cost him $40 million (then about £24.96 million), Reuters estimated. "Maxwell Closes London Paper"
''New York Times'' (Reuters), 25 July 1987. Accessed: 13 April 2014. His paper was “selling less than 100,000 copies, when minimum sales targets were 200,000 by this time", Reuters reported Maxwell as commenting.

Exclusives

The paper exposed a scandal relating to war crimes in Sri Lanka when it revealed and confirmed the presence of British mercenaries of the secret KMS unit working with Sri Lankan troops, and the subsequent termination of this following the discovery of atrocities committed against the Tamil population. The KMS mercenaries walked out after complaining that the Sri Lankan Special Task Force "was running out of control and was indiscriminately killing and torturing Tamil civilians". Human Rights Lawyer Karen Parker cited the news article in one of her NGO interventions criticising the Government of Sri Lanka at the

United Nations Human Rights Commission The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...

.''London Daily News''. 4 March 1987

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:London Daily News 1987 in London Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom London newspapers Newspapers established in 1987 Publications disestablished in 1987