The London free newspaper war today came to an end as News International announced the closure of thelondonpaper with the loss of 40 journalists’ jobs.

Launched in 2006, the loss-making paper was conceived as a rival to London’s Evening Standard, then owned by Associated Newspapers.

Associated then hit back by bringing out its own freesheet, London Lite, which it still owns despite the sale of the Standard to Alexander Lebedev.

Today News International threw in the towel, announcing it was “refocusing around a set of strategic priorities.”

The company has begun a formal month-long consultation with the paper’s 60 staff, around 40 of whom are editorial.

The paper will continue to be published during this consultation.

Around half a million copies of the paper are handed out each day in central London and Canary Wharf.

In its first two years of operation it recorded losses totalling £29.7m.

James Murdoch, who now heads up News International’s European operations, said today: “The strategy at News International over the past 18 months has been to streamline our operations and focus investment on our core titles.

“The team at thelondonpaper has made great strides in a short space of time with innovative design and a fresh approach but the performance of the business in a difficult free evening newspaper sector has fallen short of expectations.”

Comments

Chris Youett (21/08/2009 16:45:14)
This is a disgraceful decision which only hurts those who did the work & tried to make the paper fly. If Murdoch had charged for internet content in the first place, I wonder whether it would have made any losses.