''The Londoner'' was a

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

in the style of a

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 ...

published by the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

, and delivered free to most households in

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. In the words of the Mayor of London's office, it was "a newsletter for Londoners from the Mayor of London. It provided information about the policies and services delivered by the

Greater London Authority The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the Metonymy, metonym City Hall, is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved Regions of England, regional governance body of Greater London, England. It consists of two political ...

, and key issues affecting life in the capital, and encouraged participation in current debates and consultation." According to the Mayor's Annual Report 2005/06, the budget for ''The Londoner'' was £2,882,000, of which £632,000 came directly from the GLA precept portion of council tax paid by householders in London.''Mayor's Annual Report 2005/06''

retrieved May 4, 2008 Most of the remaining £2,250,000 came from advertising and editorial material, paid for by

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 ...

and the

Metropolitan Police Authority The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) (2000–2012) was the local police authority responsible for scrutinising and supporting the work of the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London (excluding the City of London Police ...

Criticism

Costing £2.8 million a year to fund, many stated that the publication was "expensive propaganda". It became the topic of many heated

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

articles, particularly those who criticised mayor

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English former politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was Local Government Act 1985, abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of Londo ...

. Those targeting the Londoner attacked what they saw as political bias; for example, putting the Flag of Venezuela on an advertisement for bus travel. The succeeding

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

scrapped ''The Londoner'' by May 2008, as part of his mayoral manifesto pledge, describing it as "the Mayor's ludicrous

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

style newspaper".''Boris Johnson: The Cost of Livingstone''BackBoris.com
retrieved May 4, 2008 Johnson pledged to use up to £1 million of the saved money to plant 10,000 trees.''Mayor scraps paper for trees plan''
retrieved May 13, 2008

References

External links

The Londoner Official Website - archive from web.archive.orgBBC Politics Show article about The Londoner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Londoner Local mass media in London Local government in London Publications disestablished in 2008