''The London Paper'' (stylised as ''thelondonpaper'') was a

free daily newspaper Free newspapers are distributed free of charge, often in central places in cities and towns, on public transport, with other newspapers, or separately door-to-door. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising. They are published at ...

, published by NI Free Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of

News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...

(who also own the companies that publish ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''). It was available from Monday to Friday each week in

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

from 4 September 2006 until 18 September 2009 (its final print-run before closure).

Background

The paper was the first

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 poli ...

to be

published Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

in direct competition with the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' since 1987 and

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, politician and fraudster. After escaping the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, ...

's short-lived ''

London Daily News The ''London Daily News'' was a short-lived London newspaper owned by Robert Maxwell. It was published from 24 February to 23 July 1987. it was designed to challenge the local dominance of the ''Evening Standard'' in the London market. Despite s ...

''. It was also the first newspaper to be launched by News International (the publisher's other titles were bought many years after initial publication). The week before ''The London Paper'' was first published,

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 9 Derry Street in ...

, the publisher of the ''Evening Standard'', re-branded their existing free lunchtime newspaper ''

Standard Lite ''London Lite'' was the trading name of a British free daily newspaper, published by Associated Newspapers (part of Daily Mail and General Trust), and now defunct. It was available Monday to Friday afternoons and evenings from street distributor ...

'' to ''

London Lite ''London Lite'' was the trading name of a British free daily newspaper, published by Associated Newspapers (part of Daily Mail and General Trust), and now defunct. It was available Monday to Friday afternoons and evenings from street distributo ...

'' and changed the publishing time to include the evening rush-hour, a move that was widely seen as a 'spoiler' to protect against the launch of ''the London paper''.

Format

The paper, edited by Stefano Hatfield, was targeted towards young readers, with emphasis on celebrity and more light hearted news, there was little analysis of news stories and the paper used many images and much colour. As a consequence of the launch of ''The London Paper'' as well as Associated Newspaper's own ''London Lite'', the ''

'' attempted to go more upmarket, emphasising the difference between the free newspapers and itself by adding the tagline "The Quality Newspaper" across the top of the front page, this changed on 12 October 2009 when, after a long history of paid circulation, the ''Evening Standard'' became a free sheet, replacing the ''London Lite''. ''The London Paper'' was also the home of '' Em'', the popular cartoon strip later featured in ''The Sun'', and the City Girl column, written by novelist Alexandra Brown.

Distribution

It held the contract for evening free distribution in London

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, a group representing passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the passenger services previously provided by ...

stations, meaning it could be picked up at the same locations as '' Metro'' in the mornings. It was also believed to be bidding for the larger contract to distribute free newspapers at

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

stations on weekday afternoons. However

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

later announced that the contract had been withdrawn after no acceptable bids were received.

Criticism

The paper was criticised for containing too much pointless celebrity news in the guise of serious news articles, such as a new Murdoch-backed music website and ''

The Simpsons Movie ''The Simpsons Movie'' is a 2007 American Animation, animated comedy film based on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' created by Matt Groening. The film was directed by series veteran David Silverman (animator) ...

''. Its television listings also included

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

alongside the five analogue terrestrial channels. Like the other free

dailies, ''The London Paper'' was generally discarded by its readers as soon as they had finished. The use of resources to print something with such a short lifespan was criticised on environmental grounds.

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022. Full council meetings ...

estimated that free newspapers made up a quarter of all rubbish in the West End, much of which went un-recycled, although some stations have positioned recycling bins at entrances and exits specifically for the purpose of recycling free papers. The London Paper recycled many of their papers into wire bound A4 notepads.

Closure

On 20 August 2009, it was announced that ''The London Paper'' would cease publication due to consistent losses. On 18 September 2009, News International decided to cease publication of the newspaper, having its final print-run after it recorded pre-tax losses of £12.9m in its second year. On 13 August 2010, Rupert Murdoch announced that

News Corp The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...

would distribute a similar digital newspaper as paid content for the

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

mobile phones A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

, and other digital devices.

References

External links

thelondonpaper.com
Official website for ''The London Paper'' (now redirects to ''

'' website).
London's free newspapers revealed
This Is Local London * ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 21 August 2009
The legacy of ''The London Paper''
{{DEFAULTSORT:London Paper Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom Free daily newspapers London newspapers News UK Newspapers established in 2006 Newspapers disestablished in 2009 2006 establishments in England 2009 disestablishments in England