Interview with thelondonpaper editor
pressgazette.co.uk have an interview with thelondonpaper editor and former editor-in-chief of Metro USA Stefano Hatfield. Let the battle commence.
When asked about the threat posed by Associated’s rival free afternoon paper, Hatfield said: “London Lite’s just a spoiler, same as the Standard Lite, same as the Evening News back in [1987] and [it] no longer exists.”
“There is a huge gaping hole editorially, a massive hole for a paper like thelondonpaper in the afternoon. The Standard reaches relatively very few people, particularly in the age and social demographic that we’re aiming for.”
Speaking in more general terms about the content of the paper, Hatfield said: “It’s 2006 and we’re lucky enough to be able to start with a blank sheet of paper. How would you design a newspaper online, offline, what technology can we take advantage of, what new trends should you be monitoring and including in the paper? Why should a paper in 2006 look and be constructed like a paper was in 1896?”
Regarding the new paper’s web strategy, Hatfield said: “I’m very clear I’m not going to just reproduce the paper online. The website is going to be very much entertainment- and going-out-in- London-focused. There’ll be listings in the paper, but there’ll be even more listings online.
 Read the story here.
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August 25th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
It’s curious: today, today’s Economist asks ‘who killed the newspaper’, but in fact the newspaper seems to be going as strongly as ever. There are the new London papers. Where I live in Switzerland even small towns have more than one paper. Samizdat printing like Schnews continues to thrive….
Sure, newspapers are changing, but they’re hardly dying out!
August 28th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
It’s curious to learn that the second strong print run new freepaper will be born. This urges papers for pay to battle for exclusiveness!!
Dr. Ahmed Jazouli
Author
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:24 pm
From my view in South Africa I can well understand why the paper is ‘free’.People like myself have children on working holidays in London and my daughter was one of the first to distribute the new paper last month.Alas,she never got paid for her efforts.If she had still been in the service of ‘Extraman’ who employed her for distributing this new paper she would have been in dire straits.To date she has not been paid for her duties.(23/10/2006)I sent her one thousand pounds from South Africa to pay her rent etc as the remuneration from the paper was notforthcoming,and asked her to fly back home.Having represented a British company (Scotish)in South for many years i am appalled at the attitude taken by this company in paying its staff.Leslie Wynne.(Satnets pty ltd)
November 19th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Dear Web Master
This world is a disgrace…
Except for the colours of the autumn - and TheLondonPaper.
Yours knowingly,
Peter Seekings-Foster.