London Goes Freesheet Crazy

London is seeing a newspaper war with the release of freesheet newspapers aimed at taking the place of the London paper – a position The Evening Standard used to hold for many years. The Guardian reports:

News International is to print 400,000 copies of its new freesheet, thelondonpaper, when it is launched a week today in direct competition with Associated Newspaper’s new free paper, London Lite.

…Les Hinton, News International chairman, told the Guardian thelondonpaper was aimed at younger readers living within the M25, who were not being served by the Evening Standard or its free sister paper. Its circulation was, he said, a “Home Counties sale”.

“I love the Evening Standard. I grew up with it: James Cameron in Hanoi, Simon Jenkins on London, Michael Foot in charge of the book review. The thing is, it’s not appealing to Londoners.”

MediaGuardian.co.uk

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