Another free title for Londoners launches today, offering a community-focused magazine and website pitched as a Village Voice for London.Despite an increasingly competitive London news market, the four-strong team hopes that the Penny will build an audience of 24-49 year-old professionals not properly served by either the Evening Standard or Time Out.
Editorial is being headed up by freelance journalist Mike Wendling, former correspondent for Associated Press, CNSNews and currently working as a news correspondent at the BBC.
"We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think there was a gap in the market. We'll be to the Evening Standard what the Village Voice is to the New York Post," he told journalism.co.uk.
Mr Wendling explained that the Penny will be "relentlessly focused on London", but more edgier than the competition by building on news coverage with in-depth features and wider perspectives. Arts coverage will be an important element and sports coverage is planned further down the road.
The team is also working with the London by London site - the close-knit and highly popular web community pitched as the "wit and wisdom of 14,000 Londoners". Users of the discussion-orientated forum share local knowledge and tips on everything from good restaurants to dealing with urban foxes, and the best of the site was turned into a book last year.
Some selected content from the London by London site will feature in the 'editor's best' column, and will be linked through blog comments and relevant Flickr streams.
"The Friday Thing and London by London use the web to great effect and are quite unlike a traditional publication," said Mr Wendling.
"There's a big tie-in with London-by-London. The site is massively popular and loads of people read it to swap the kind of tips and information that you just can't get elsewhere."
The site will be developed properly once the magazine is established. Most of the content from the print magazine will be on the site as well as the usual "bells and whistles" of multimedia content: audio interviews; extra photos; competitions and the now-ubiquitous blogs that will become "the voice of the website".
Both the website and print magazine will be free, promoted in coffee chains and bookstores across London. The magazine will be published fortnightly after an initial one-month pilot. Issue one features an in-depth profile of George Galloway, a column on classic London novels and an interview with singer songwriter Martha Wainwright.
Mr Wendling said that the print publication is likely to generate revenue that the website cannot yet match.
"Serious, quality journalism is at the core of the whole thing and I'm not aware of a web-only enterprise that could do this - it costs too much to pay reporters. That's a serious factor.
"We'll have to be reactive and distinct to stand out."
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