Sir Ray Tindle is to continue his rollout of new weekly papers in London next week – after claiming his stabled of 38 titles in the capital are approaching 1m readers.
The veteran newspaper entrepreneur launched the London Weekly News in November as a free title covering the centre of London and aimed partially at the city’s 5m tourists.
At the same time he also revived three defunct titles – the Westminster and Pimlico News, Kensington News and Chelsea News – as pullouts inside the Weekly News and as self-contained editions within their own areas.
On Monday the rollout of historic brands will continue with the relaunch of the Fulham Chronicle, first established in 1883.
In a news release announcing the latest launch, Sir Ray claimed the total readership of the London Weekly News Group – which incorporates all 38 titles in London and Essex – is now “approaching 1m.”
The initiative is being overseen by Karen Sheppard, managing director of the South London Press whose staff have produced the content for the new titles, and Philip Evans, who runs a series of Tindle-owned weeklies in the West Country.
Sir Ray said: “I firmly believe in local weeklies. We have 200 years of history behind us and 200 years of great future ahead”.
Tindle managing director Wendy Craig added: “The planning for these moves was completed six months ago and the object of this exercise is to prepare our weeklies for the years to come.”
The company has appointed Mediaforce to handle avertising for the Weekly News and its associated titles.
Its chairman and CEO Malcolm Denmark said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been appointed by Tindle Newspapers to represent their South East businesses.
“With the Tindle portfolio of strong weekly brands this further strengthens our sales representation in the region and opens up many revenue opportunities as a result not the least it gives us coverage that is second to none of the London and Greater London market.”
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A future for print maybe? Cancel the coffins!
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Enough with the Tindle sycophancy – is the old fraud going to hire any journalists?
And what does some hay chewer from the West Country know of news in London?
(Although I will accept my local Tindle paper, the South London Press has improved enormously since the new editions was launched. Bizarre, really)
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News is news whether you are a hay chewer from the West Country – like me – or a cokehead from Stepney.
We all know about news in London: knife crime, dope trafficking, fashion freaks, M25 congestion, air pollution etc etc etc.
You know the old saying. If you’re tired of life, go to London.
Easy.
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Every time I see Wendy Craig come up in a HTFP story I get Butterflies. Oh Nanny.
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For anyone thinking of carping, Only Living Boy, there is an alternative: it’s called Local World. Would you prefer their version of the future?
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Brassington – have you seen Tindle’s West Country papers? Mr Evans won’t be able to put in a week witch-burning round-up, and front pages about turnips ain’t gonna cut it in London.
Anyway, how many reporters is Tindle hiring for this venture?
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It’s great that Sir Ray (old fraud or not!) is still going strong and that his business is expanding BUT the “South London Press” is a pale shadow of the old paper. It appears that Tindle’s editors and other journalists are being spread too thinly. Even if you hand them stories on a plate they to not follow them up. Too many press releases to cut and paste, I guess. And there is little sign of anything that approaches “investigative journalism”. I gave up buying the paper a couple of years ago and the web site is rubbish. Thank heavens for Brixton Blog and similar.
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Im not sure why the South London Press is lumped into the story regarding the new tindle titles
I say launch new papers and get on with it. Tindle will decide the fate of them and if they are still around in a year’s time, which to me sounds like the minimum a title deserves, then it means they are holding their own.
I do object to The only living boy, SE14’s ignorant comment about Philip Evans as “And what does some hay chewer from the West Country know of news in London?”
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So what does Philip Evans know about London papers?
Well, when he’s not busty chewing hay, he can proudly reflect on a career in which he ‘only’ managed the biggest group of local papers, turning a loss of £700k into a profit of £900k in the eye of the last recession. He has launched 46 papers in his time, of which 42 are still in business, and has employed hundreds of journalists over the years. He is celebrating (if that is the right word) 50 years in the business this August and is still doing a 70-hour week.
What a Wurzel!
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Doubts aside, should we not be welcoming more print. By end of this year we are sure to lose some papers.
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I think Tony McDonald has put the defence (not that it was needed) of the publishing editor Philip Evans very well. I hope that the journalists on the new titles are paid the going rate and they are successful titles.
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