A new free weekly newspaper is to be launched next week in a Midlands town already covered by two daily titles.
Swadlincote, in South Derbyshire, is in the heart of the Iliffe-owned Burton Mail’s patch and is also part of the circulation area of Northcliffe’s Derby Telegraph.
However former Northcliffe sales manager David King believes the former mining town, which has a population of 40,000, should have its own dedicated title.
Now David has teamed up with former Johnston Press journalist Louise Birkett to launch the Swadlincote Post, with the first edition due to hit the streets next Friday.
The 24-page paper will have an initial print run of 10,000 and will be printed by Mortons in Horncastle, Lincolnshire.
David left his job as a sales manager at Northcliffe-owned Central Independent Newspapers in Tamworth where he had worked for the past eight years to concentrate on launching the title.
He said: “Seeing Swadlincote expand whilst I’ve lived here, I always felt that it could sustain a free, but never had the people around me or the investment.
“Eventually it all fell in to place and here we are a week away from press.
“We’ve had a huge amount of interest from the public and local business alike. Not only is Swadlincote one of the fastest growing areas in England, it is also at the heart of the National Forest.
“Swadlincote has a population of around 40,000 today and has never had a free title dedicated to the area. As a community it relies upon the Burton Mail for snippets of local news.”
The paper’s editor will be Louise Birkett, a freelance writer and former local press journalist who currently works mainly in internal communications.
Also joining the team is ad design/page planner Tim Madew, a self-employed designer who previously worked for the Satellite Advertising Agency.
In addition some local writers have been recruited on a freelance basis to write columns for the new paper.
These will include a finance column, a wildlife and education column, and a column covering sports and leisure.
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I would like to take issue with the phrase ‘snippets of local news’.
I work for the Burton Mail as a reporter and find this insulting to say the least.
The team at the Mail provide comprehensive coverage of not only Swadlincote but also South Derbyshire.
This includes detailed reports of district council, parish council and police meetings as well coverage of a wide range of public interest stories.
Also as a resident of South Derbyshire, I think the Mail does a great job of covering the patch and provides the community with an excellent summary of news and events.
A throwaway comment in an effort to position a new free paper in an already well serviced market seems extremely misjudged and as I said before insulting to all the hard work that goes into gathering stories and putting together the Mail every single day.
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“As a community it (Swadlincote) relies upon the Burton Mail for snippets of local news.”
‘Snippets’?! To set the record straight, the Burton Mail covers the whole of South Derbyshire, including Swadlincote, with the same thoroughness it covers Burton, the other part of our patch.
On an average day we have several lead-length articles, as well as columns and columns of smaller new items, on everything from robberies to community fun days to planning stories – in South Derbyshire.
With 114 years’ experience of covering the town, we know Swadlincote better than anyone, and we are also the ONLY paper which attends all the key South Derbyshire District Council meetings as well as area forums and parish council meetings across the district – every week.
I look forward to seeing the Swad Post reporters at Overseal Parish Council on a rainy Thursday night… or maybe not.
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Thanks for the feed back Tim and Rob, The throw away comment ‘snippet’ could have been phrased better, so for that i apologise. What i was trying to get across was that Swadlincote has expanded as a community and that it deserves it ‘own’ newspaper with extensive coverage of area news and events. I dont want to get into tit for tat, but if you look at yesterdays ‘Burton Mail’ there was 57 articles ROP of which 8 were about Swadlincote!! All we want to do is give Swadlincote a voice to celebrate its success and express its concerns.
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Hi David – we just had a quick count in yesterday’s Mail and counted 26 stories specific to Burton and East Staffordshire, 17 specific to Swadlincote and South Derbyshire, three specific to North West Leicestershire and four of general interest to all three areas.
If this was replicated on the six days a week on which we publish, that’s over 100 South Derbyshire-specific news stories a week, not to mention other areas like the property pages, ents etc which cover South Derbyshire and the sports coverage of Derby County, Burton Albion and Gresley FC, all of which have supporters in South Derbyshire.
Perhaps your count refers specifically to Swadlincote town, but are you also including places like Church Gresley, Newhall, Midway and Woodville, which are practically part of Swad?
South Derbyshire is a very tight-knit community and people in Swad are interested in what’s going on in, say, Overseal, Castle Gresley or Willington, not to mention neighbouring North West Leicestershire communities such as Measham and Moira with which it has very close links.
I appreciate that you want to create a voice specifically for Swadlincote, but you can’t write off the close social and cultural links it has with neighbouring areas.
As an example, in the story about the boxer in a coma which has dominated our pages this week, the boxer is from Newhall (South Derbyshire) but the bout happened in Burton and he has close links with Burton Amateur Boxing Club.
Even stories which may at first glance appear specific only to Burton, such as those about major employers like Coors, Marmite, Pirelli etc, are relevant to South Derbyshire too as many people from there work in Burton, and vice versa with Burtonians working at Toyota etc.
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As i said i don’t want to get into tit for tat…..I appreciate that you do a good job at the ‘Burton Mail’ as reporters and as competitors we are on different levels. The Mail is owned by a huge company and is paid for and I’m a start up with four people and a few freelancers, launching a free.
What i’m hoping for is that the people in Swadlincote see what i see in the area, that is one of the fastest growing in England. I feel it should have it’s ‘own’ free newspaper that they can send stories into and they can feel proud of and if they don’t i’m sure i’ll find out quick enough.
Villages grow into towns and towns into cities, all the ares i.e. woodville, midway, newhall, church gresley, castle gresley, overseal, linton all make up Swadlincote, the area has merged into a town.
Yet we sit here at the bottom of Derbyshire and in the shadow of Burton with no real identity and that’s what local newspapers do give places identity and that is what I will try and achieve.
Thanks
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Gosh, what a churlish lot you reporters and ed itors are!
Give the ‘new boy on the block’ a chance for goodness sake, you complain enough when newspapers fold!!
And remember this, it could be you lot next seeking employment opportunites!
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Good Luck
Don’t bet your house on it.
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Good Luck David,
A very good idea as you are keeping the news local!
In this day and age local is key to success and winning readers.
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Me thinks it’s “hand bags” at dawn!!
Any seconds needed – brilliant – keep it up lads.
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Mr King is welcome to have a crack at it, and more power to his elbow – but if his published paper has the same problems with grammar and spelling that his posts above have, I fear it won’t last long.
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Thanks for the few messages of support! As much as i think i can do everything, i’ll leave the writing and editing of the paper to Louise and her team!!
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Give the lad a chance… he’s a brave young entrepreneur and we should celebrate his courage in taking a chance against the grey suited corporatism that exists in local publishing. Micro publishing is definitely the way forward I just hope he gets enough support from local businesses….so you guys at the Burton Mail…..I know you feel threatened so be careful, he may be employing you one day!!!
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Totally agree with Media Mogul – I know David and you all just need to stop the negatives and be positive. This chap has ambition and at least he is going to have a go!!!!
How many people have said they will launch their own title and yet never had the bottle??
I can think of a few that moan and moan but they are still sitting at their newsdesks and still moaning!!!
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The Swadlincote Times has also been covering the area since 1889 (albeit rather loosely in recent years due to its dedicated office closing and downsizing), as well as the fondly missed North West Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Leader.
Always nice to see local journalism on the up, though.
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