London Daily News

=1987=

The "London Daily News" was a short-lived London newspaper owned by Robert Maxwell. It was published from 24 February to 23 July 1987. It was intended to be a "24-hour" paper challenging the local dominance of the "Evening Standard"."For the city that never sleeps, the paper that never stops", ran the slogan. [ [http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1859497,00.html/ "The London legacy of Cap'n Bob", The Guardian London, 28 August 2006] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.] The "Standard"’s owners, Associated Newspapers, responded by re-launching the defunct "Evening News" at a lower price to squeeze the "London Daily News" out of the market. A price war ensued finishing with the "London Daily News" selling at 10p and the "Evening News" at 5p.

Maxwell was dismissive when he heard about the cut-price Evening News. He told the BBC: "The Evening Standard and Lord Rothermere are so worried about their monopoly - which the London Daily News is finally breaking - and so scared about the huge demand for our paper, that they've brought out a cheapo Evening News, which is really a joke." After the "London Daily News" collapsed, The "Evening Standard" 's publishers, Associated Newspapers saw that the "Evening News" had done its job and then re-absorbed it into "Evening Standard". The "London Daily News" was the first home of the "Alex" cartoon, later published by "The Independent" and the "Daily Telegraph". [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5311516.stm/ "Murdoch versus Evening Standard", BBC News, 4 September 2006] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.]

Maxwell had conceded defeat on 25 July 1987 an hour after paying undisclosed damages to Associated Newspapers for accusing it of lying about the "Evening Standard" 's circulation figures. Starting the "London Daily News", which published four editions a day, had cost him $40 million (about £ 24.96 million), the New York Times estimated. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6D9163AF936A15754C0A961948260/ " Maxwell Closes London Paper", 25 July 1987] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.] His paper was “selling less than 100,000 copies, when minimum sales targets were 200,000 by this time".

Four years later, Maxwell vanished in mysterious circumstances from his yacht in the Atlantic. [ [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/5/newsid_2514000/2514649.stm/ "Publisher Robert Maxwell dies at sea ", BBC News, 5 November 1991 ] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.] His empire was found to be at least £1 billion (about US $1.74 billion) in debt [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/5/newsid_2528000/2528991.stm/ "Maxwell business empire faces bankruptcy", BBC News, 5 December 1991 ] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.] and his companies’ pensions funds were short of £400 million (about US $697.08 million) the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry reported in 2001. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1250953.stm/ "Maxwell son blamed in DTI probe", BBC News, 30 March 2001] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.]

April 2008

The London Daily News has now been relaunched as an online newspaper [http://thelondondailynews.com The London Daily News] by media analyst John Kaponi of IPM Media.

1846-1930

Charles Dickens had used the name "Daily News" for a radical London newspaper he founded in 1846. The paper was not a commercial success. He edited 17 issues before handing over the editorship over to his friend John Foster, who had more experience of journalism than Dickens. He ran the paper until 1870. [ [http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/ldn.1856.raw.html "London Daily News: General Description", Rossetti Archive.Undated] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.] Charles Mackay, Harriet Martineau, George Bernard Shaw, Henry Massingham and H. G. Wells were among the leading reformist writers who wrote for the paper. In 1901 Quaker chocolate manufacturer George Cadbury bought the "Daily News" and used the paper to campaign for old age pensions and against sweated labour. As a pacifist, Cadbury opposed the Boer War – and the "Daily News" followed his line.

The "Daily News" merged with the "Daily Chronicle" to form the centre-left "News Chronicle" in 1930, and in October 1960, four years after opposing the UK's military support of Israel in invading the Suez canal zone in 1956, the News Chronicle 'finally folded, inappropriately, into the grip' [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6082076.stm/ "Suez and Fleet Street", Geoffrey Goodman, BBC News, 1 November 2006] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.] of the centre-right "Daily Mail". (The "New York Times", among others, incorrectly in 1884 referred to Dickens's paper as the "The London Daily News". [ [http://www.msu.edu/~graye/emma/paris.html/ "Paris Dispatch to the London Daily News, March 22", New York Times, 1 April 1884, archived at Emma Nevada site hosted by Michigan State University] .Accessed: 2007-09-14.] )

References