London: One of Britain's largest newspaper publishers is taking an innovative leap with the first of its kind "standalone national daily" to be launched in the past 30 years just as another wraps up its print edition. Trinity Mirror group, publishers of the left-leaning Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, is launching 'The New Day' on February 29.
"It will report with an upbeat, optimistic approach and will be politically neutral," a Trinity Mirror statement said. The New Day, with a blue masthead, will run to 40 stapled pages every day on thicker-than-normal newsprint. It will be available free from over 40,000 retailers on launch day, and will be priced at 25 pence for the following two weeks before selling at 50 pence after that.
"There are many people who aren't currently buying a newspaper, not because they have fallen out of love with newspapers as a format, but because what is currently available on the newsstand is not meeting their needs," editor Alison Phillips said.
"This paper has been created as a result of customer insight and is the first newspaper designed for people's modern lifestyles," she added. The new title comes despite a sharp decline in newspaper sales as readers switch to online sources.
The Independent and The Independent on Sunday newspapers recently announced closure of their print editions from March as they go digital-only. "Over a million people have stopped buying a newspaper in the past two years but we believe a large number of them can be tempted back with the right product," said Simon Fox, chief executive of Trinity Mirror.
"Revitalising print is a core part of our strategy in parallel with digital transformation and there doesn't have to be a choice between the two - newspapers can live in the digital age if they have been designed to offer something different."
The newspaper will not have a website but will have a social media presence instead. It is to be pitched at people aged 35 to 55, who want "a more modern approach to news," the newspaper group said. Setting itself apart of The Independent linked 'i' newspaper, Fox added: "This is a completely new newspaper. It's not a 'Mirror light' in any way."
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