| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | MSI Media Limited |
| Founder | James Henderson |
| Founded | 1865 |
| Ceased publication | 2025 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford London SE6 2NZ |
| Circulation | 63,000 (Fridays) (as of July 2017)[1] |
| Website | londonnewsonline.co.uk |
TheSouth London Press, London Weekly News and Mercury (formerly South London Press) was a weekly newspaper published in South East London. The newspaper covered news, sports and features within the south, central and west London area from 1865 to 2025.
The newspaper was first published byJames Henderson in 1865.[2]
Between 2007 and 2016 the paper was part of theTindle Group, which bought it fromTrinity Mirror. The paper was then purchased between 2017 and 2019 by Street Runners Ltd.
In 2017 the newspaper entered a 'media partnership' withMillwall F.C.[3]
In 2019, theGreenwich Mercury was merged into thePress.[4]
The paper ceased in May 2025.[5]
Many of its former reporters have gone on to make careers inFleet Street, and it is still considered a training ground for the nationals. Max Wall and then Richard Woolveridge edited the bi-weekly in its glory days when its circulation was over 130,000. The novelist and criticMartyn Bedford used to work in the Lewisham office of the paper, while Brian Alexander, the former sports editor ofThe Sun andMail on Sunday, was sports editor until 1986.Paul McCarthy, sports editor of theNews of the World,John Pienaar, political correspondent and reporter onBBC Radio 5 Live, and David Bond, who was appointed as the BBC's sports editor in 2010, worked at theSLP in the 1980s and 1990s. Others who went on to Fleet Street include Ken Reynolds, Steve Grimes, George Binyon, Willie Robertson, John Twomey, Ian Malin, Debbie Andalo, Brian Stater, Ev Bramble, Carolyn Jones, Anna Pukas, JJ Young, Jonathan Buckmaster, Chris Ward, Stewart Morris, Claire Aaron, Anton La Guardia, Brian McConnell, Peter Burden, Ron Ricketts, Geoff Manners, John Rodda and Colin Wood. Steve Willmot, the paper's crime reporter, worked for the Sunday Mirror and IRN and later worked for New Scotland Yard and MOD in PR roles. PublicistMax Clifford was also an employee.[6]
TheSouth London Press won thePress Gazette Regional Press Awards 2009 Newspaper of the Year for weekly newspapers above 20,000 circulation.[7]
