Region-wide weekly The North West Enquirer has gone into administration, prompting the loss of 15 editorial jobs.

The independent title had been launched in April by former Guardian journalist Bob Waterhouse and businessman Nick Jaspan, with the backing of two venture capital firms and a number of private investors.

But it had not sold as well as had been hoped and a decision was made to call in the administrators after one of the paper’s backers changed the terms on their investment.

Managing director Nick Jaspan told HoldtheFrontPage the move meant going forward with the newspaper was too much of a financial risk.

He said: “It was more of a risk than it should have been or than any of us wanted.

“The problem was we were hemorrhaging cash in the first few months. We had 18 or 19 journalists and were geared up to a certain level, but advertisers took longer to come in.”

A total of 26 staff have lost their jobs.

Last month four editorial staff were made redundant, with the deputy editor, news editor, a sub-editor and a reporter leaving the paper.

Paid-for sales had been between 10,500 and 12,000 a week, against a target of 20,000. Up to 7,000 copies were also given away each week at airports and through various property firms.

It covered an area which took in Carlisle, north Staffordshire, the Welsh border and the High Peak area of Derbyshire, as well as the major cities of Liverpool and Manchester – where the paper was based.

Prior to launch managing director Nick Jaspan said the paper aimed to meet the needs of people who lived in and worked in the region and advertisers who wanted to reach a wider audience than that offered by more localised titles.

Today he admitted that visibility had been a problem, but said he still supported the idea of a region-wide newspaper.