London freesheet picks two agencies

Campaign 02-Sep-05

City AM, the free daily business newspaper set to launch in London later this year, has hired Grounds Morris Smith and BLM Media to handle its creative and media accounts.

The paper will herald its arrival with a poster advertising campaign
supported by through-the-line activity.

Grounds Morris Smith was appointed without a formal pitch and follows
almost a year of development work on the project by the agency.

The colour tabloid, originally to be called London Business Daily, is

the brainchild of Lawson Muncaster, the former vice-president of global
sales at Metro International and one-time sales director at Eurosport
and CNN. City AM will be edited by David Parsley, a former business
editor of the Sunday Express.

Muncaster said: "Newspapers need partners who have experience, integrity
and the ability to move fast in all areas of strategic and creative
development. Grounds Morris Smith offered us that."

City AM will have an initial distribution of 60,000 copies, rising to
100,000 within the first three months.