London Daily News - 1987

1987

The London Daily News was published from 24 February to 24 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. 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.

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. His paper was “selling less than 100,000 copies, when minimum sales targets were 200,000 by this time".