Media on Trial - London Lite

Title: London Lite; Publisher: Associated Newspapers

With the launch of two new papers for London, people are going to be giving away or selling more than a million afternoon newspapers in the capital.

Both Associated and News International have said that it's a unique opportunity to hit the 18 to 35-year-old reader, but it is questionable whether the market can sustain this volume. Regardless of both publishers' confidence, success will soon quite literally be at the whim of the man in the street.

The difficult thing for Associated is whether it should produce something completely different to what it already has. Its dummy of London Lite, which it put out last Friday ahead of its full launch tomorrow, is more like Standard Lite than something brand new, and elements have clearly evolved out of Standard Lite, such as the listings. There is a valid place for listings in a print format, but it takes up most of the back half and looks like padding in the test issue. I'm not sure there needs to be 10 pages of listings, though this will presumably change earlier in the week.

The entertainment section has been beefed up, it's colourful and the short articles work well. I'm less sure about the two-page city briefing - a lot of 18-34s are more interested in personal finance, rather than City news. I'd also question whether this demographic will be interested in horse racing and there's only six pages of sport.

London Lite is close enough to Standard Lite that it won't alienate Standard readers, and it's a positive that it has lost the Standard's tag, as it needs to disassociate itself from the paid-for title to avoid cannibalising sales. But it can only properly be judged once thelondonpaper launches.

- Review by Alex Randall, head of press, Vizeum UK.

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