Comments on: The London Weekly: some unanswered questions

By: A case study in crowdsourcing investigative journalism (part 3): The London Weekly | Online Journalism Blog

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:06:22 +0000

[...] and The Guardian podcast Media Talk; some formed the basis for posts on James Ball’s blog, Journalism.co.uk and the Online Journalism Blog. Some has, for legal reasons, remained [...]

By: Bob-1

Bob-1 — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:04:20 +0000

Domen thelondonweekly.net was register in october 2008

By: jj

jj — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:34:00 +0000

Another odd note: the address for http://www.thelondonweekly.net/ is listed as 145 – 157 St John St, but if Google Maps is accurate, the postcode is several blocks away at Hull St.

By: Open letter to the London Weekly and Invincible Media | Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:22:52 +0000

[...] strong doubts about its viability and existence, the London Weekly did launch as the capital’s latest [...]

By: jamesrb.co.uk » Blog Archive » An Open Letter to The London Weekly

jamesrb.co.uk » Blog Archive » An Open Letter to The London Weekly — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:38:36 +0000

[...] are quite a few. Scores of people, including myself; Judith Townend of journalism.co.uk; the users of helpmeinvestegate.com; Media Guardian and Twitter users @Coneee, @Kjalee, @VickyJo, [...]

By: Lyn

Lyn — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:12:25 +0000

Got to be a hoax. It’s just too ridiculous (look at the random awards categories … ‘Car of the Year’???) … in a paper for Londoners???: http://www.thelondonweekly.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=16&Itemid=52
Also note that the Wiki profile of Jordan Kensington includes his parents, Agnes and Emmanuel. Both names appear, alongside that of Mother Theresa, on the list of staff no-one has heard of (http://www.thelondonweekly.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=73&Itemid=110).
Plus all the typos, er, unusual spellings, in staff names ‘Libberman’, Mellissa’, ‘Donnovan’ – surely they can’t all be correct.
Has anyone asked Gemma Cairney for her opinion, given she’s meant to be a columnist? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemma_Cairney
If it is a hoax, we’re all getting sucked in as we’re wasting far too much time thinking about this.

By: Paul Lomax

Paul Lomax — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:43:18 +0000

Joe: He might exist but you still might be on to something with Jordan Kensington.

3. His mother was called Agnes.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:40:44 +0000

James – the company could easily be registered under some other name. Or perhaps not at all if they haven’t started trading yet.

I think my point is that this is clearly not a spoof (what would be the point? what is the ultimate joke? spoofs are much clearer cut and shorter-lived than this. If you wanted to spoof, what you’d do is print an ACTUAL newspaper – just one print run). It may well be a mismanaged, shoddily set up corporate entity which has exaggerated its own support and will soon collapse. We don’t quite know that yet though.

By: Moffatt

Moffatt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:38:59 +0000

Many wasted calls to them re messing people around over last 3 months. They all say “I’m just a receptionist, I can’t put you through.” This time I said I was going to the police if they didn’t give me a name. The receptionist then said the director is Steven Campbell. Write to him at the address in Hackney. Receptionist’s name, Sarah Mills. Might be a great spoof but they are costing people time and money. Joke wearing thin.

By: The London Weekly starting to look like a mirage | The Wire | Press Gazette

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:18:43 +0000

[...] Journalism.co.uk has found out that there is a new editor, Alan Mills, and has spoken to a human being on the telephone who is involved in the project – so well done them! Head of display Angus Auden assures them it is not a “wind up” and says: “There are a lot of people in offices all over the place.” [...]

By: joe

joe — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:29:36 +0000

Mind you, he does at least appear to exist. I was starting to think there was no evidence that this was a real person: http://bit.ly/cKpC3v

By: joe

joe — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:13:38 +0000

And another thing. Check out Jordan Kensington’s wikipedia page. http://bit.ly/ES2gR

Two things:

1. The Mother Teresa link

2. He has a school in Cameroon and St Lucia. St Lucia?? That is a long way from Cameroon.

The problem with the hoax idea is that this is a lot of complexity (lots of websites, wikipedia pages etc etc) to go to isn’t it?

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:07:05 +0000

… and surely anyone who had really pooled £10.5m from several investors would probably want some sort of formal legal structure for that organisation?

By: joe

joe — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:03:06 +0000

I’m not sure who should do this, but it would be very interesting to ring up as a potential advertiser and see what kind of information they’re giving out.

By: James

James — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:58:15 +0000

Bob – you’re right that a new company wouldn’t have accounts at Companies House, but its articles of association etc WOULD be published if it existed.

Companies created as little as a few weeks ago already have their documents on the site. It’s a legal requirement when establishing a ltd company.