Newspaper Wars (aka Bad Journalism)

[moley]

For those who did not receive my email.... Comments very welcome. Did you like the papers/stories?

So guys and girls - tonight was the night when The London Paper was launched to go head to head with last weeks new freebie, the London Lite.

So, apart from the fact that they both ran with the same lead story - Steve Irwin's untimely death - you thought one of them might have gone for a big fat London exclusive.

Well, yes - one did. The London paper on page 8 has the story "£6bn Games travel plan" which begins:
"A £6 BILLION masterplan aimed at ending London's commuter misery and reading the capital for Olympic glory has been exclusively revealed to thelondonpaper. ..."

This exclusive story has more big gaps in it than the Northern Line's service to Mill Hill East! I choose just a selection for you....

"Long-suffering commuters on London's neglected North London Silverlink line and passengers on the East London line from Shoreditch to New Cross will be among the first to benefit."
OK - The NLL comes to TfL from Autumn 2007, but the East London Line (phase 1) will not be fully delivered until June 2010!!!! If they are among the first, the we should all panic now.

"On Wednesday, Mayor Ken Livingstone will confirm he has signed a "225 million new contract to deliver 30 new trains on the North London Line"
How about this press release then from 31 August - last Thursday. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-centre/ ... p?prID=882

Page 10 and 11 then go onto show the improvements for the Olympics - as you will notice they are all 'shocks'

Jubilee Line - Upgrade to the signalling
District Line - Rolling stock refurbished by 2009
Central Line - Capacity Upgrade
Station Upgrade - All 275 stations refurbished by 2010 (cg note: This is way behind schedule)
Bond Street to be Upgraded sooner than 2010 (- they obviously have not been through Bond Street recently, it's happening - now!)
Upgrading of all sub surface lines to get 15% increase in train service by March 2012 (- they however forget to mention the S Stock.)
Canning Town, West Ham and Stratford - Stations to be upgrade to take DLR services. (Well, I've used DLR services at Canning Town and Stratford before - so 1/3 isn't bad!)
Woolwich Arsenal - Extension of DLR line with new station (yes, because this is already under construction).
Bank to Lewisham line - Platforms to be extended for 3 car trains (old news? They go on to tell you that an increase from 2 to 3 cars is a 50% increase in capacity - you don't say).
Poplar and Canning Town - "New three car-trains" (We don't know what they will do with these three car trains at Poplar and Canning Town - perhaps offices?)
Four new stations to relieve at High Street, Abbey Road and Star Lane. (Yup - count them, one, two, three - errr????).

"Hoxton clubbers can look forward to their own Tube stop for the first time" - since when has their been planned a TUBE service to Hoxton. TfL Rail - yes indeed.

Finally - the article states "Up to 240,000 passengers disgorging at the Olympic Hub [Stratford]" - The Dictionary definition of Disgorging:
1. To bring up and expel from the throat or stomach; vomit.
2. To discharge violently; spew.
3. To surrender (stolen goods or money, for example) unwillingly.
4. To discharge or pour forth contents.
It also has a link to wine.....

Erm, I'm staying away from Stratford!!!! This article is appalling - it contains no new news at all! It has a number of factual errors.

The London Paper appears to have modelled itself on the Guardian whereas London Lite is a cross between The Metro and The Mirror. Incidentally, tonight the distributors were both stood next to each other trying to convince their victims (sorry, I mean readers) to choose their respective papers. There also appears to be an unwritten rule whereby you may not have a copy of each free paper! As I got yelled at both distributors for taking one of each!

After tonight's performance, The London Paper have scored an almighty own goal and handed the upper hand to London Lite. Let battle commence........

Regards,

Chris

[43019]

I only ever read the Metro usually, as it's free. If someone leaves a copy of The Times for me to read, that's more than fine (my preferred paper), but I've not seen the others yet. Something I hope to do on my next trip!

[standclearofthedoors]

I'm going with the London paper as I'm worried Associated Press has a monopoly on London papers- think about it...
Morning- Metro
Lunchtime- Standard Lite (Sic)
Evening- Standard.

There needs to be more than one point of view out there..

[londongirl]

I'm going with the London paper as I'm worried Associated Press has a monopoly on London papers- think about it...
Morning- Metro
Lunchtime- Standard Lite (Sic)
Evening- Standard.

There needs to be more than one point of view out there..

I thought London Lite was meant to replace the Standard Lite because they wanted more people to buy the actual Standard so figued if they made a free evening paper more people would buy the Standard in the afternoon... or something like that

[Starkey7]

I was cycling around the Russell Square area earlier today and saw lots of twenty-something newspaper vendors dressed in interesting purple polo shirts. They were giving away one of said papers; I can't remember which. But how can they afford to pay people to give papers away free? Perhaps it's the advertising money, but it seems like shooting yourself in the foot if you're not getting anything else back...

[londongirl]

I took a poll at work on the newspapers. Or rather as I worked on the doors for a Theatre/Bar I counted all the people with Lite's vs London Paper and the London Paper outnumbered the Lite 2 to 1. Though they were handing the London Paper on the corner of the street....

[greatkingrat]

Well there are never any Metros left when I go into work in the morning while the London Paper doesn't yet seem to have made it to the wilds of Highbury & Islington in the evening. So I guess London Lite wins by default.

[standclearofthedoors]

Is thelondonpaper only distributed in zone 1 then? I haven't seen it outside yet. Then again it's only been 2 days...

[londongirl]

I was cycling around the Russell Square area earlier today and saw lots of twenty-something newspaper vendors dressed in interesting purple polo shirts. They were giving away one of said papers; I can't remember which. But how can they afford to pay people to give papers away free? Perhaps it's the advertising money, but it seems like shooting yourself in the foot if you're not getting anything else back...

I was just informed that the distribution daily of these papers won't be a permanent thing. Instead the London paper is going head to head with the Lite to see who gets the official "transport" distrubution spot. i.e who gets to leave their papers in the Metro's stands on the underground etc. So the people handing it out is just promotion

[tpfkar]

I walked through Waterloo to the shop where my bike was being repaired yesterday, and I couldn't go more than 10 steps without being jumped upon by someone very enthusiastically trying to force a paper into my hand. I eventually took a London Lite and held it out in front of me, so they could all see that I had one already. It worked, I never found time to read it though