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New look for regional daily as next phase of JP relaunches begins

A regional daily is set to be relaunched today as part of the next phase of revamps at regional publisher Johnston Press.

The Yorkshire Evening Post is getting a new look as part of a transformation of all 170 paid-for titles owned by the company.

The relaunch programme started last spring with the announcement that JP was switching five daily newspapers to weekly publication and relaunching all its titles.

The programme was due to be completed by November last year but chief executive Ashley Highfield announced it was being delayed until early this year to ensure its journalists had the right tools for the job.

The Yorkshire Evening Post relaunch which will include a series of new supplements each night of the week.

Other JP titles which have announced redesigns in the coming weeks include the Sheffield Telegraph and the Dinnington Guardian.

Peter Charlton, editorial director of Yorkshire Post Newspapers said: “The relaunch is important to the future of the Evening Post.

“It improves our connectivity with our readers; adopts a more campaigning stance and underpins our position as being the paper for Leeds.

“We have developed daily platforms ranging from fashion to football and there is more co-ordination between our print and online offerings.

“We hope readers will find the paper brighter and fresher – and its great to have something to shout about in the regional press”.

In a story about its new look, the YEP said: “The daily paper is proud to serve the people of Leeds and beyond and has something for everyone from hard-hitting news and intelligent features, to outstanding sports coverage.

“Your new and improved newspaper will feature dedicated pull outs, six nights a week.”

Its supplements will include The Match, Style, local leagues football pull-out The Goals and entertainment supplement WOW 247.

Sheffield Telegraph assistant editor Chris Burton has written a blog about the relaunch at his paper, which will take place in the next few weeks.

He wrote: “We plan to relaunch a redesigned newspaper that not only looks better, but brings great advances in content, both in-print and online.

“We also want to improve the way we communicate with you, the reader, by embracing even more readily the social media technologies available today.”

Announcing the delay to the relaunch programme, Ashley said part of the reason for the delay was the need to ensure journalists had the right technology to help bring about the necessary improvements in content.

He said by the end of the relaunch programme, around 1,700 journalists would each have received a new laptop, mobile phone and Google Mail account, while all editors would have iPads.

The first phase of the relaunch programme saw five daily titles switching to weekly, eight broadsheets going compact, three North-East freesheets going paid-for and six East Midlands weeklies given a radical redesign.

Its second phase took place in October, with 44 titles being relaunched.

Johnston Press had not responded to requests for a comment at the time of publication.

11 comments

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  • January 21, 2013 at 10:40 am
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    Hmmm… A double-deck taster strip, eh? Stylish!

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  • January 21, 2013 at 10:41 am
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    Although the tools for the job are nice, we’d also quite like some staff to use them if that’s not too much trouble?
    I’m surrounded by a sea of empty desks – and that’s not down to people not making it to work because of the snow.

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  • January 21, 2013 at 11:07 am
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    I am sure my few remaining colleagues on JP papers are thrilled over their new laptops, GMail accounts and iPads. The future is now safe…..

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  • January 21, 2013 at 12:00 pm
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    Good idea getting lots of offers for the first edition, but not sure about the design. Not very pretty, is it?

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  • January 21, 2013 at 12:18 pm
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    Am I the only hack around who doesn’t want a Twitter or Facebook account? Why this obsession with “social” media? The expression “turkeys voting for Christmas” springs to mind.

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  • January 21, 2013 at 12:38 pm
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    Well said Scribbler. Still, if JP are going for the type of morons our population is turning into, they’re on target with the vapid five-second-attention-span re-design. Might as well have called it the Yorkshire Evening Metro and given it away.

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  • January 21, 2013 at 12:39 pm
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    No I’m the same, scribbler. I can see the worth of social media for business and promotion and encourage all reporters to push it. But me? I’m just not interested in what ordinary people like me think about ordinary things. If it’s funny or clever then maybe, but it is normally mundane and boring or worse, abusive, ignorant and threatening. C

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  • January 21, 2013 at 3:10 pm
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    There is a role for social media but not for endless Day Today-style ‘speak your branes’ drivel. I genuinely believe most people want to be told what to think.

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  • January 21, 2013 at 4:01 pm
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    XJP says the front page isn’t very pretty, in the same vein as a comment offered against another HTFP article where a front page was described as ‘ugly’. Do the aesthetics of front pages really matter? Surely the primary role of a front page is to command attention from people who don’t intend to buy the newspaper. The YEP front mightn’t be pretty but I think it does a decent job of shouting why people should buy today’s ‘paper.

    For what it’s worth, I reckon the free pint and free sausage roll offers will do more to shift copies than interest in the main news story, so best give them lots of space.

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  • January 22, 2013 at 10:41 am
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    Still called ‘Evening’ Post yet printed overnight in Dinnington about 50 miles away.

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  • January 25, 2013 at 11:37 am
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    “If it’s funny or clever then maybe, but it is normally mundane and boring or worse, abusive, ignorant and threatening.”

    Since you consciously decide who to follow on Twitter, if your timeline is full of people saying boring, mundane, abusive, ignorant or threatening things, then you ‘unfollow’ them and ‘follow’ someone more interesting. Your timeline says more about you than the people you follow.

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