The London Weekly has arrived!

A couple of days ago in my first post, I mentioned there was going to be a new London freesheet to be launched sometime later this year. Well It's now arrived and it's called the London weekly, you'll be able to pick up your first copy on the 5 February.

The paper's website was actually launched on 20 December last year at thelondonweekly.co.uk, but it must have been a low key affair because I don't remember hearing anything about it. I don't quite understand why the website was launched last year, but yet they've waited for over 6 weeks to launch the paper itself.
I've had a quick look at the website, and it's been updated rather sporadically since December which doesn't make much sense to me, and doesn't give the site a great deal of credibility. Are they just doing a test run, or is it that they can't be bothered to update it properly until the February launch?

The paper's publishers, Global Publishing Group (GPG) have said they intend to distribute 250,000 on Fridays and Saturdays. Some reports I've read have suggested that it will only be distributed during the mornings which is fine on a Friday, but who's going to be around to pick it up on a Saturday?

The paper describes itself on its website as a newspaper which,
"bridges the gap between traditional newspapers, Sunday tabloids and dailies" before going on to say that the paper will be "an entertainment, politics, music, sports and lifestyle newspaper."

This seems like quite an ambitious idea. It's hard not to take the cynical view and ask what will this paper provide that you can't already get with the Evening Standard and previously the London Paper and London Lite?

The Independent reported on 1 December 2009 that it intends to get readers to contribute around 30% of the paper's content and to also post news and videos to its website.

Bringing in 'Citizen journalist' is something I'll definitely be paying attention to. I'm not aware of any other papers that have publicly stated they're looking for readers to contribute such a significant amount of content.

I have to say, It's a really brave move by the publishers GPG, when you consider that two free newspapers covering almost the same topics folded at the end of last year. It's intriguing to know where the publishers and editorial staff get their confidence from. Other people may say it's just plain stupid!

I'm not a huge fan of free newspapers and I don't see that London really needs another free paper; Of course I might be proved wrong, but I'll be surprised if the London Weekly is still around this time next year.