South London Press closes after 160 years
A long-standing survivor of London’s local media has closed for good today.
The South London Press had been around since 1865 and incorporated The Mercury which ceased as an independent physical paper – then website – some years ago.
It was particularly well known for excellent sports coverage and ironically shut for good just as two south London teams achieved success with palace winning the FA Cup and Charlton securing promotion to the Championship at the weekend.
Journalists such as Richard Cawley and Louie Mendez have provided excellent coverage in recent years and a potential gap looks open for a new site covering south London football.
Charlton’s rise will bring a few more eyeballs to any website that can cover the Addicks in depths next year.
The South London Press was owned by MSI Media Ltd having acquired the title from administrators back in 2017.
That leaves the Newsquest-owned News Shopper as one of the few survivors amongst the old legacy press. Good news for those who love NIMBY stories aimed at the over 80s, rehashed TikTok videos and endless cut and paste Met Police press releases (featuring incorrect towns in public appeals and all).
Very sad SLP had reputation for salacious crime reporting for many years. But it was not made up! And it covered many important issues.
The demise of a local press is cited as bolstering populism and Trumpism in America. The void is always filled with dross under the guise of citizen journalism
I am sad the South London Press has closed. I have been reading it all my adult life
Maybe they didn’t do enough of those tragic “LIVE update” pages as seen everyday on the Newsshopper.
“12:02 LIVE: A crash is reported in Woolwich.
12:32 The AA say there’s traffic. Send us your pics.
12:33: Road now open. Thanks for following us”
Incredible journalism.