The Londoner

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The Londoner was a newsletter in the style of a newspaper published by the Mayor of London and delivered free to most households in Greater London.

In the words of the Mayor of London's office, it was "a newsletter for Londoners from the Mayor of London. It provided information about the policies and services delivered by the Greater London Authority and key issues affecting life in the capital, and encouraged participation in current debates and consultation."

According to the Mayor's Annual Report 2005/06^[1], the budget for The Londoner was £2,882,000, of which £632,000 came directly from the GLA precept portion of council tax paid by London householders. Most of the remaining £2,250,000 came from advertising and editorial material paid for by Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Authority.

[edit] Criticism

Costing £2.8m a year to fund according to a BBC article, many stated that the publication was "Expensive propaganda". It became the topic of many heated blog articles, particularly those who criticised the previous mayor Ken Livingstone. Those targeting the Londoner attack what they saw as political bias, for example, putting the Venezuela flag on an advertisement for bus travel.

The current Mayor Boris Johnson scrapped The Londoner as part of his mayoral manifesto pledge, describing it as "the Mayor's ludicrous Pyongyang-style newspaper"^[2]^[3]. Johnson has pledged to use up to £1m of the saved money to plant 10,000 trees^[4].