News International said today that it will close its giveaway thelondonpaper ending the costly three-year free newspaper war with Associated's London Lite.
"The strategy at News International over the past 18 months has been to streamline our operations and focus investment on our core titles," said James Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive, News Corporation Europe and Asia.
"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. We have taken a tough decision that reflects our priorities as a business."
Thelondonpaper, which had a distribution of more than 500,000 copies a day, recorded a pre-tax loss of £12.9m in the year to 29 June 2008 on a turnover of £14.1m.
The paper will continue publishing for a month while its 60 staff, 40 of whom are journalists, are consulted.
Via MediaGuardian and Press Gazette
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1 comment:
40...cricky, I thought there'd be less than that!
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