Archive for August 20th, 2009
Farewell, thelondonpaper
News that thelondonpaper is to disappear from our pavements and vacated tube seats was met with the bare minimum of surprise in my office today. Not around long enough to morph into a proud British institution like other failing media of our age, it nonetheless attained the slightly muted accolade of being slightly better than its competitor, the London Lite.
I for one am sad to see it go, if only for the daily dose of vicarious romance offered by its missed connections column.
On a slightly less nostalgic note, however, it’s fascinating to take in the paper’s journey, from its initial launch at the top of the economy’s climb where it was a direct threat to the more established London papers, through to the relaunch of its struggling website, and to its eventual demise. It’s strange to think that there was a time it looked like it would upturn the paid-for newspaper industry.
At the same time, more specialised local freesheets seem to be surviving and even thriving (as far as they can given the economic climate): Shortlist, Sport and City A.M. are all reasonable examples.
For my part I hope that this trend will continue, and that we might hope one day to see a variety of more focused, light, website-linked free local publications which can effectively act as digests of excellent content available online. One newspaper I’d certainly love to see replicated in the UK is The Onion. Anyone up for it?
