The Argus in Brighton is launching a free sister title.

The Argus Lite will be aimed at the 35,000 commuters who travel from the city into London each day, and its publishers hope it will also help attract new readers to the main paid-for paper.

The free title will hit the streets for the first time on Monday, February 20 and 10,000 copies will be given away each morning between 6.30 and 8.30 before the main paper is on sale.

Newsquest (Sussex) managing director Martyn Willis said the target audience was virtually all non-Argus readers so there should be no adverse reaction to the Argus sale, and instead it was hoped it would draw more people to The Argus.

He said: "The transient nature of the population of Brighton & Hove means that there is a vast number of people who move into the city and commute to London, without having the benefit of engaging with their community.

"The Argus Lite is designed to gently integrate them into Brighton and Hove city life and introduce up to 35,000 new readers to The Argus brand."

He added that the Lite would also bring a new audience to advertisers, claiming that businesses in the city currently have no reliable advertising medium through which to reach this potential market.

He said: "The Argus Lite will provide up to 35,000 new potential customers to retailers, restaurateurs, entertainment venues and a whole host of others.

"With the introduction of The Argus Lite, The Argus portfolio with theargus.co.uk website and core title The Argus itself will see the brand as an advertising medium go from strength to strength."

The Argus Lite will contain a mix of national news and sport along with a local "lite bite" of news and entertainment which can be read easily in a one-hour train journey.

It is currently looking for staff, including subs, and details can be found in our jobs section.

A team of distributors will initially hand out the Lite on routes leading to the stations of Brighton Central, Hove, Brighton, Preston Park, Hayward's Heath and Burgess Hill every morning and it is hoped that further locations will be added later in the year.