thelondonpaper Lost Nearly £17m In First 10 Months

News International’s freesheet thelondonpaper is reported to have lost nearly £17 million in its first 10 months of publication on a turnover of £8 million.

thelondonpaper, which launched in September 2006, recorded a pre-tax loss of £16.8 million in the year to the end of June 2007, according to a report on MediaGuardian.co.uk.

Accounts filed at companies house show that the freesheet had a turnover of just over £8 million and costs totalling £24.6 million, including £3.1 million in advertising and promotion expenses and £2.4 million listed as general and administration expenses.

The figures were included in accounts prepared for NI Free Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

thelondonpaper and rival freesheet London Lite have been blamed by some for an increase in littering, with Westminster Council doing a deal with both titles in January to install recycling bins in central London (see Freesheets Get Recycling Bins).

The latest circulation figures for thelondonpaper show that its circulation remained relatively static period on period in March, with a total figure of almost 501,000 copies (see London Freesheets Continue To Dent Evening Standard’s Circulation).

Rival freesheet London Lite saw its circulation dip by over 1% period on period, or around 4,700 copies, to a total of 395,633.

News International: 020 7782 3922 www.newscorp.co.uk