Free Paper To Shut After ' Most Difficult Year' For Rupert Murdoch

[CrashConnoisseur]

'Free paper to shut after 'most difficult year' for Rupert Murdoch':

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/art...doch/article.do

Evening free paper thelondonpaper is to be closed with the loss of 60 jobs, it was announced today. Rupert Murdoch's News International said it could no longer afford to produce the title because of huge losses and the downturn in advertising.

The title was launched just under three years ago in competition with rival London Lite, which is published by the Evening Standard's minority shareholder DMGT.

[...snip...]

Today's announcement follows a review of News International's UK operations that began early last year. But the first hint that the paper would be axed came in Private Eye magazine yesterday and staff and executives were not told before the announcement.

[...snip...]

Last year the free newspaper, which has a circulation of about 500,000, made a loss of £12.9 million on revenues of £14.1 million. Losses this year are believed to be £9.1 million, some £4  million worse than had been budgeted for.

Parent company News Corp recently revealed a net loss of $3.4 billion (£2.1 billion) for 2008/09, compared with a $5.4 billion profit for 2007/08. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said the year had been "the most difficult in recent history" for the group.

News International is legally obliged to consult staff before formally closing the paper and making redundancies.

One member of staff said: "Nobody saw it coming. In fact the editor laughed off the idea only a few days ago."

Edited August 20, 2009 by CrashConnoisseur

[pie-eater]

Good.

Less friggin annoying people shoving them in my face on my way home, and less rubbish in the streets.

[deflation]

Maybe it's that advertisers don't want to use Murdoch's piece of s**t papers. The Metro seems to do OK, we get that on the trains round the Midlands for nothing.

The local freebie papers are getting thinner due to loss of EA revenues but they are still going. One local paper only has houses for rent now, and no EAs advertsing houses for sale.