London’s Docklands News has published its first issue as a weekly paper, after 21 years as a monthly.

Publishers Docklands Media Ltd decided to make the jump after feedback from readers and advertisers showedthere was a demand for a more frequently published newspaper in the area.

Group managing director Richard Alvin said: “There is no real weekly presence here, and we were approached by a few customers who suggested we go weekly.

“We dismissed this at first, until the comments became more and more frequent and we decided that it was feasible.”

The change is part of a rapid expansion at the company, which has also seen a separate corporate division set up that will focus on producing publications for external customers such as councils.

The Docklands News will now be published every Thursday, and distributed door to door to 80,000 businesses and homes across the Dockland area from Tower Bridge to the Royal Docks.

It was previously published on the last Friday of every month and is printed by Newsfax International in Bow.

The first weekly issue has 40 pages, and it is hoped that in time this will increase to 64.

The Docklands News was created by the London Docklands Development Corporation, a Government body set up to regenerate the Docklands area. When its remit was complete the paper was handed over to an independent publisher, and was sold to its current owner in February 2000.

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