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January 27, 2015updated 28 Jan 2015 12:06am

Local TV station London Live to cut 20 staff in order to buy in more content

By William Turvill

London Live is set to cut around a third of its staff, 20 jobs.

A well-placed source told Press Gazette that all 20 of the job losses have come from the station's news and current affairs department and that more than half of those affected are journalists.

London Live chief operating officer Tim Kirkman said: “As the business develops we are able to assess where our resources are best deployed to drive continued growth into the business.

"We are restructuring the news and current affairs team with the proposed loss of a number of roles.

"These funds will be re-allocated against new commissions and higher quality acquisitions.

"It is clear on all our data that Londoners are enjoying this part of our offering which we will continue to improve to drive our overall viewing figures.”

London Live claims to be in the top 20 most popular commercial TV channels in London, watched by more than 2.3m adults in December.

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According to audience data company Barb, London Live's most popular programme in the week ending 18 June was a re-run of comedy the Green Wing which attracted 30,000 viewers.

The 6pm evening news on the Tuesday night of that week was the seventh most watched programme on the channel, according to Barb, with 22,000 viewers.

London Live, like the Standard and Independent titles, is owned by Evgeny Lebedev.

The Standard yesterday announced it was expanding its website, advertising for positions in "news, Going Out/lifestyle/showbiz, sport and video sourcing/editing".

London Live launched on 31 March after Lebedev's group won the local TV franchise for London.

At the time it said it planned to draw on 50 editorial staff and a combined newsroom of 300 journalists working across the print titles.

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