A family-run newspaper company has launched two free titles in partnership with a magazine firm as it continues to expand its publishing operations.

Editorial content for Tunbridge Wells on Saturday and Tunbridge Wells on Sunday is being provided by existing staff from parent company KOS Media while commercial operations are being run by The Magazine People.

The two new weeklies are sister titles to Kent on Saturday and Kent on Sunday, which are based in Ashford, and are heading towards their third editions this weekend.

Kent on Saturday/Sunday have a county-wide remit so the new papers will focus more closely on the borough of Tunbridge Wells along with neighbouring towns and villages.

There will be some content sharing between the four papers but editor Chris Britcher told HTFP the two new titles are effectively standalone newspapers.

He said: "Saturday will be lighter in its news focus whereas the Sunday paper will be much more traditional, like Kent on Sunday, with weightier news such as health, education and big stories on public spending.

"Talks behind the scenes about this have been going for some months, if not years, but realistically things didn't really get moving until about a month before we launched.

"So far things are going OK – we've launched in a tricky financial market but we see a requirement to serve the west of the county far more than we have done previously.

"We're trying to make it clear to readers there's a difference between us and the Kent and Sussex Courier by deliberately avoiding the 'cat up a tree' stories.

"We're not going head-to-head with them, we're just trying to offer something different for the weekend."

In addition to the new titles, Kent on Saturday/Sunday have launched new 'west editions' which are distributed in Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and the Weald.

Chris was formerly the editor of Kent on Saturday and KOS Media's YourLocal series of free weeklies.

Joining him on the new titles are chief reporter Jenna Pudelek, formerly a senior reporter with Kent on Saturday/Sunday and deputy editor Jon Coates, ex-news editor with the YourLocal series.

The trio is based in the offices of So Tunbridge Wells magazine, which is owned by The Magazine People, in Tunbridge Wells.

In April, KOS Media brought out two new editions of the YourLocal series for Deal and Sandwich, creating up to six new jobs in the process, and revamped and relaunched the Kentish Saturday Observer as Kent on Saturday.

It followed this up a month later by adopting a part paid-for, part free model for the previously free Kent on Saturday and Kent on Sunday.

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