The London Weekly – myth or reality?

The London Weekly, a new free newspaper aimed at the London commuter market was launched at the start of February, aiming to fill the gap left following the demise of the London Lite and thelondonpaper in late 2009.

Created by a group of private investors calling themselves Global Publishing, the paper is distributed outside Underground stations on Fridays and Saturdays. The team behind it describe it as "the only free newspaper in London covering light entertainment, gossip, politics, health, music and fashion" – obviously unaware of the London Evening Standard.

Working in the heart of media land, I use the tube to travel to Tottenham Court Road from Stockwell and back again daily, where I’m constantly exposed to the Metro, City AM and the Standard, as well as weekly magazines, such as Shortlist, Stylist and Sport. However, as of yet I’m still to be offered one of the supposed 250,000 copies of the London Weekly – and we’re now on issue 5.

Have I just been in an oblivious daze as I stumble out of the tube on Friday morning still half asleep? Possible but unlikely it seems, as a quick survey of the office reveals nobody else has seen it either – and I’m pretty sure at least half of them were awake.

Launching a new free-sheet in London is a daunting task no doubt, and anyone attempting to do so would of course face difficulties along the way and bumps to smooth. However, targeting Friday and Saturday tube users (Friday users likely being very different to Saturday users) and failing to make it readily available, especially in its first few weeks of existence, seems like a bad way to start.

Kyle Seeley, Planner/Buyer