It’s been a big week on the street of shame. First the bruvvers at the Barclay Brothers’ Telegraph/”Torygraph” titles voted to down tools when told that 54 journos are to be boned when they move into their new fully integrated, 24-hour digital-mode, open-plan offices in central London soon. Then the National Union of Journalists’ “chapel” (house committee) at the left-leaning Guardian rejected a pay and conditions offer from management and started rattling their galleys. On Tuesday, CityAM celebrated its first birthday by handing out 90,000 copies (up 50% in the year). Oh, and Rupert Murdoch also launched a London paper called thelondonpaper.

Such is Rupert’s publishing lore and management cachet in Fleet Street that few can possibly envisage him failing in this venture or any other venture. But fail he has. In 1987, having already won the new technology Battle of Wapping, he bought the flash colour London tabloid Today off Tiny Rowland’s Lonrho and subsequently ran it into the ground.

My, how we forget… Today was started by Eddie Shah in March 1986 and pioneered the use of electronic typesetting and full-colour offset printing. The paper was in terminal decline for the eight years it was under Rupert’s control at Wapping. It was finally put out of its misery in November, 1995. It was the first long-running national newspaper title to fail since the Daily Sketch in 1971.

Meanwhile, Rupert’s bunfight with Jonathan Harmsworth for the combined 800,000 purple-top market is still too close to call. The Evening Standard was said to have maintained their 85,000 paid-for circulation in London Zone One in the first week – but they would say that, wouldn’t they. Jonathan’s Metro also pumped our 550,000 copies in the morning and CityAM upped its ante to 90,000.

As you would expect, Rupert’s marketing has been excellent. The media mogul’s pitch line to the ad agencies is “we know where you walk” referring to the geo-mapping of the young urbanite target market: “There’s Soho,” says News Limited’s Clive Milner, fingering his data. “Five Tubes, 32 bus stops, eight car parks, 35 key office buildings that deliver the right profile, 32 retailers that have got the right audience, six media agencies that will hopefully buy our product, 14 postboxes, and there are 25 Evening Standard sellers in there. We will have many, many more merchandisers.”

Jonathan’s chief headkicker Martin Clarke says: “You’ve got to go and shout at the bastards or they won’t respect you.” All newspaper editors attract colourful tales from the journalists they employ, but few can boast of death threats. Few can shout so loudly that their nose begins to bleed. In the Fleet Street mythology, then, Martin Clarke is already well established even if London Lite, his new baby, is just a week old.

Both papers could end up surviving. Dublin has two freesheets going head to head, Paris has three, Barcelona four and Madrid, five. Back at the Aussie outstations in Sydney and Melbourne, Rupert’s mX freebies boosted their pages from 24 to 32. Image all those trees being murdered!