SLP closes
Very sad news about the South London Press, which abruptly closed it’s doors yesterday after 160 years covering our corner of the capital.
The South London Press was owned by MSI Media Ltd having acquired the title from administrators back in 2017. Staff were told on Tuesday to stop working, and the paper’s sport editor Rich Cawley made first mention of it yesterday on his X page.
In a week that Palace won their first ever trophy and Charlton and AFC Wimbledon won promotion the timing could not be worse, and me refreshing it’s Charlton page over and over on Sunday evening and only finding old stories now sadly makes sense. The SLP website is now completely inaccessible.
The paper’s sports coverage, particularly that of South London’s football teams, and which extended to some of our non-league clubs as well, provided a detailed and speedy chronicle, and it will be sorely missed by a lot of readers.
The SLP and especially Rich Cawley has long been a beacon of light through so many tough times at Charlton when no other media outlet gave a toss. Rich in particular provided tough examination and scrutiny of a string of past charlatan owners and was not afraid to ask the tough questions.
Louis Mendez also wrote for the SLP, but Louis does have other platforms. Rich Cawley has been a great advocate for Charlton and I will miss his writings, although he has hinted on his X page that he will continue to cover South London football. I really hope he does as the SLP’s closure presents a huge whole in Charlton’s media coverage.
Hopefully the hole will get filled CA. I remember when the Kentish Independent disappeared and wondered where our Charlton focus would come from then. SLP become more proactive with Charlton coverage ! I had always thought of them as a Millwall and Palarse paper up until that point 😀! Sad to see the publication go and hope Rich Cawley and Louis Mendez get sorted!
… tragic … back in the late sixties -early seventies I supplied my Valley touch line photographs from Charlton matches to the South London Press … and the Mercury, the Kent Messenger, Kentish Times, the Lewisham Borough News and more. Not much of those left anymore now ;-( …
Back in the day (alongside colleague Tom Morris ) I had the best seat at the Valley !!!
I remember your photograph’s well, Brian.
That certainly is the end of an era for local football and for me personally. I was briefly sports editor (amongst othere things) at the Lewisham Borough News and it’s sister papers before it disapeared in the 60’s so I got to know the SLT people quite well.
My paper was largely covering third division south teams Millwall and Palace when I joined and I increased the coverage to include Charlton. The SLT took a similar route soon after that.
Turning to more recent times Rich Cawley in particular will be greatly missed by me and many CAFC fans.Hope he finds a new journalistic home soon.
Keith – you must have seen tremendous changes in journalism in that time.
In my previous comment I called the SLP the SLT – mental abboration there
A sad day indeed. The SLP will be sadly missed by all local supporters.
I was Sports Editor of the Lewisham Borough News and sister papers back in the 60s and like the SLP we only covered third division south Palace and Millwall. I changed that and started to cover Charlton because in my opinion they had a greater readership potential nothing to do with the fact that I was a CAFC fanatic of course. The SLP followed suit soon after.
I have lots of memories of working and meeting SLP people. Along with the Mercury it was a vital cog in the south London football scene.
More recently I have enjoyed and trusted the work of Rich Cawley who along with CA always provided my vital Charlton news.
Hope Rich you get back quickly.