London Lite

Last updated
London Lite
Type Free daily newspaper
Owner(s) Associated Newspapers
Founded14 December 2004
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publication13 November 2009
Headquarters London
Websitewww.thisislondon.co.uk

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 distributors in Central London only. On 27 October 2009, Associated Newspapers announced that it had entered into negotiation with staff over the future of the paper. [1] The last edition was published on Friday, 13 November 2009, a date chosen by staff for its swan song.

Contents

History

On 14 December 2004, Associated Newspapers launched a freesheet edition of the Evening Standard , called Standard Lite, to help boost circulation freely. This had 48 pages, compared with about 80 in the main paper, which also had a supplement on most days.

It was announced in August 2006 that the free paper would now be called London Lite, in a move that was widely seen as a spoiler to protect against the launch of News International's The London Paper on 4 September.

With the sale of the Evening Standard, but not London Lite, to Alexander Lebedev on 21 January 2009, the association between the Standard and the Lite was broken. London Lite—like its free sister morning newspaper, Metro —remained owned by Associated Newspapers, the same media group that owns the Daily Mail .

Content

London Lite, edited by Ted Young, was designed to be especially attractive to younger female readers, and featured a wide range of lifestyle articles, but less news and business news than the Standard. It was initially available only between 11.30am and 2.30pm from Evening Standard vendors and in the central area, but was later handed out by its own street distributors.

Celebrity gossip was given more coverage than international news and the Lite also reported in detail the incidents of violent crime in the capital.

On 8 July 2009, the online version of London Lite merged with that of Metro , [2] another London daily free newspaper owned by Associated Newspapers, but published in the morning.

Criticisms

Alleged environmental impact

Free newspapers left behind by passengers on a London Underground train Free newspapers on london tube train.jpg
Free newspapers left behind by passengers on a London Underground train

Like the other free London dailies, the London Lite was generally discarded by its readers as soon as they finished reading it. The use of resources to print something with such a short lifespan was criticised on environmental grounds. Westminster City Council estimated that free newspapers made up a quarter of all rubbish in the West End, [3] much of which went un-recycled, although some stations positioned recycling bins at entrances and exits for this purpose.

Competition

In June 2009, London Lite distributed an average of 400,741 copies each weekday, behind the 497,244 copies distributed by rival The London Paper . [4] However, despite its higher circulation figures, The London Paper closed two months earlier than London Lite did, on 18 September 2009.

The closing of The London Paper ironically brought about the demise of London Lite. The Evening Standard saw a gap in the market, and decided to make its publication free less than one month later, on 12 October 2009. Less than three weeks later, London Lite announced it would close down.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabloid (newspaper format)</span> Type of newspaper

A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format.

<i>Evening Standard</i> Regional free daily tabloid-format newspaper in London

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metro International</span> Swedish media company, publisher of the Metro newspapers

Metro International is a Swedish global media company based in Luxembourg that publishes the Metro newspapers. Metro International's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 41 percent since launch of the first newspaper edition in 1995. It is a freesheet, meaning that distribution is free, with revenues thus generated entirely through advertising. This newspaper is primarily intended for commuters who move daily in and out of big cities' business areas, mainly during rush hours.

<i>Metro</i> (British newspaper) British tabloid newspaper

Metro is the United Kingdom's highest-circulation freesheet tabloid newspaper. It is published in tabloid format by DMG Media. The newspaper is distributed from Monday to Friday mornings on trains and buses, and at railway/Underground stations, airports and hospitals across selected urban areas of England, Wales and Scotland. Copies are also handed out to pedestrians.

<i>Manchester Evening News</i> British daily newspaper for North West England

The Manchester Evening News (MEN) is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the MEN on Sunday, was launched in February 2019. The newspaper is owned by Reach plc ,[2] one of Britain's largest newspaper publishing groups.

DMG Media 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 Kensington.

Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the Daily Mail and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is located in Northcliffe House in Kensington, London. In January 2022, DMGT delisted from the London Stock Exchange following a successful offer for DMGT by Rothermere Continuation Limited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free newspaper</span>

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 different levels of frequencies, such as daily, weekly or monthly.

The Herald is a nationwide mid-market tabloid newspaper headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and published by Independent News & Media who are a subsidiary of Mediahuis. It is published Monday–Saturday. The newspaper was known as the Evening Herald until its name was changed in 2013.

<i>The Flint Journal</i> American newspaper

The Flint Journal is a quad-weekly newspaper based in Flint, Michigan, owned by Booth Newspapers, a subsidiary of Advance Publications. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, it serves Genesee, Lapeer and Shiawassee Counties. As of February 2, 2012, it is headquartered in Downtown Flint at 540 S Saginaw St, Suite 504. The paper and its sister publications The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times are printed at the Booth-owned Valley Publishing Co. printing plant in Monitor Township.

<i>Express</i> (Washington, D.C., newspaper)

The Express was a free daily newspaper, distributed in the Washington metropolitan area. It was a publication of The Washington Post. As of 2017, it had the second highest circulation in the District of Columbia after The Washington Post, and was read by 239,500 people every day. The final issue was published on September 12, 2019, after losing money and readers.

The London Daily News was a short-lived London newspaper owned by Robert Maxwell. It was published from 24 February to 23 July 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Metro News</span>

The Manchester Metro News is a British weekly newspaper published each Friday by Reach plc. It was established in 1987 as a free sister paper to the Manchester Evening News featuring a round up of the week's news. These days the paper also has a 12-page supplement called Metromagazine and a total circulation of 308,589 in the south Manchester area . It has a smaller geographical reach than the M.E.N.. It is delivered in south and east Manchester, Stockport, Trafford and the Wilmslow area - and has three separate geographical editions: City, Trafford and Stockport. Most of the content of the paper is the same for all three editions, but a few pages differ, with more local advertising and editorial. In February 2010 along with the Guardian Media Group's other regional and local titles, the newspaper was sold to competitor Trinity Mirror plc. This was in order to safeguard the future of the loss making newspaper The Guardian.

nrc•next was a Dutch daily newspaper published in the Netherlands by Mediahuis. The first edition was released on 14 March 2006. It was stopped in March 2021. nrc•next was a morning edition tabloid, and its primary target group are young higher educated people.

<i>The London Paper</i>

The London Paper was a free daily newspaper, published by NI Free Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International. It was available from Monday to Friday each week in Central London from 4 September 2006 until 18 September 2009.

<i>City A.M.</i> British business newspaper

City A.M. is a free business-focused newspaper distributed in and around London, England, with an accompanying website. Its certified distribution was 67,000 copies a day in January 2023, according to statistics compiled by the ABC, and has a digital audience of just over 2 million unique visitors a month.

The Daily News of Newburyport is an American daily newspaper covering northeastern Essex County, Massachusetts, USA. The newspaper is published Monday through Saturday mornings by North of Boston Media Group, a subsidiary of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

tonight (newspaper)

tonight was a free afternoon newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founded in 2009 and acquired by Annex Business Media in 2013. Targeted at evening public transit commuters on GO Transit and TTC, its main distribution channels were through the use of newsies, newspaper boxes and PATH billboards throughout Toronto’s downtown core, and through newspaper boxes across the TTC. The publication name was originally stylized with periods as t.o.night - a tongue-in-cheek reference to Toronto. The newspaper was unique in Canada, with its magazine size and format, making for easy transit reading.

References

  1. Brook, Stephen (27 October 2009). "Associated Newspapers plans to close London Lite". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 October 2009.
  2. London Lite - home of the best London news and celebrity gossip [ permanent dead link ] metro.co.uk - Online home of the super stuff you find in London Lite and more!
  3. "As waste piles up, London freesheets talk a lot of garbage | Newswatch". newswatch.write2kill.in. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011.
  4. .June ABCs: London Paper stays ahead