Don't read all about it

London Lite versus thelondonpaper.

We in the capital are blessed with two free evening papers to help us endure the tube home.

But which is worse?

The London Lite is published by Associated Newspapers, owners of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, morning freebie Metro and the Evening Boris.

Thelondonpaper is a Murdoch joint, he of The Sun, News of the World, The Times, Sunday Times, Sky News, and half the rest of the world's media.

Interestingly, studying the papers’ stablemates doesn’t really help us pin down where they're coming from.

The brash, trashy Lite looks more like The Sun than the Mail, albeit with fewer obtrusive nipples, while the thelondonpaper feels like the product of a vodka-fuelled one-night stand between the Daily Mirror and The Independent.

Both titles would claim they understand what makes London tick. But a brief flick through today’s editions suggests neither of them seem much interested in what's going on in the city at all.

If I discount the “briefs”, those three-sentence space-fillers, the Lite contains an impressively tiny tally of FOUR London “stories”.

They are:

* Blackfriars tube to shut for 30 months (featuring a byline for Dick Murray, the Evening Standard’s transport correspondent, this piece is clearly cut-and-pasted from its paid-for sibling)
* City lawyer ‘groped’ girl at strip club
* The ‘alternative’ hot property guide to London (based on research claiming people who live in the wealthiest areas of the capital are rated the most attractive).
* Mum’s fears for fashion boss stab victim (a slender follow-up to a murder in Camberwell)

The Lite's three most prominent stories have little to do with London at all, featuring missing Scot Madeline McCann (on the front), Notting Hill star Rhys Ifans with a “mystery blonde” in Ibiza (written, incidentally, by Georgina Littlejohn, daughter of repugnant hate-monger Richard), and Robert Mugabe, getting himself banned from the Beijing Olympics. The rest of the rag is mainly pictures of people sunbathing.

For sure, thelondonpaper has its share of random celeb stories, and a huge number of photos of said slebs.

But it also publishes the following:

* Brown poised to scrap stamp duty (the splash - including how much the measure would save the average London buyer)
* Face of the latest fatal stabbing (that Camberwell murder)
* Alesha’s ex Harvey in Javine ‘knife’ threat (yeh, I know, but the alleged domestic did take place in Dollis Hill, at least)
* Cabbie Mitch Winehouse (dad of drug-addled Amy) getting a presenter slot on BBC London radio
* Lawyer fired for taking intern to Soho strip bar
* London trains are the UK’s most crowded (including that Blackfriars tube closure)
* Eat, Drink, Vote and be Merry (Bayswater and Croydon named best places in the capital to eat)
* Chasing Some Beijing Bling (Feature on London-based Olympic competitors)

That's EIGHT, in case you weren't counting. It's only one day, but I reckon it's a fair reflection of both papers' news priorities.

So what does it tell us? Go out and buy The Guardian? Well, yes. But if you’re looking for a London paper, pick up thelondonpaper. The London Lite is liter.