thelondonpaper Launches And The Free Newspaper War Begins
The war between the free afternoon papers has finally kicked off in earnest, as News International’s thelondonpaper hit the streets today at 4.30pm, putting it head to head with Associated Newspaper’s offering London Lite.
thelondonpaper like its opposite number London Lite, carries a lot of purple on its pages, although unlike that paper it seems to be not totally obsessed with celebrity goings on.
Both free papers will also be going up against the Evening Standard, which last week raised its cover price in a bid to differentiate itself from the free offerings.
The top of each page carries an interesting statistic and a quote from some newsworthy person and the layout is very clean. There is even a green section focusing on environmental issues, which should set it apart from other titles, for the moment at least.
When it comes to something very important to those in and around London, the listings section to check what’s on in the capital, thelondonpaper takes a different tack to London Lite, carrying just five pages compared to the Associated title’s 15.
The new paper certainly looks appealing and, with its offering of exclusive clips from Armando Iannucci’s DVD on its website, it is definitely positioning itself as a thoroughly modern title, although of course it remains to be seen which of the new freesheets will triumph.