The Liverpool Echo today unveiled an expanded newspaper with a host of new supplements and features to its readers.

The relaunch is part of a wide-ranging investment programme – estimated to be in excess of a quarter of a million pounds – and includes extra pages and more editorial and sales staff in a bid to increase the paper’s six-day purchase.

Changes to the Echo include five new weekly sections as well as the expansion of some of its existing platforms, adding an extra 32 pages to the paper across the week.

New family leisure section

Staff on the title have been working towards the relaunch for most of the past year, with deputy editor Jon Brown leading the development team and working together with features editor Jane Haase, design editor Rob Irvine and marketing manager Sarah Cotterill.

An additional features writer and sub-editor/designer are also being recruited by the newspaper.

Editor Mark Dickinson said: “The paper had a major redesign two years and since then we have been doing research into how well that worked and where to go next – this is the answer.

“Readers were telling us that the early week papers are thin and this is a major part of the changes. We are bringing pagination forward as well as increasing pagination.

“And from September we will be looking ahead again.”

Starting from today, the Echo will have five new weekly sections, including a three-page Monday business platform called The Biz, specially written for Merseyside’s small to medium sized businesses.

On Tuesdays the paper is introducing an eight-page family leisure section called Time Off, and will also have a 12-page junior sport pull-out called Junior XSport.

New youth sport section

Named after the paper’s Premiership soccer-dominated Monday sports supplement, Junior XSport will include a comprehensive fixtures and results service, plus features, pictures and match reports – part of a strategy to target families with school-age children, which the newspaper has identified as a key segment in the market.

Research by the paper has found that there are thousands of children on Merseyside who are involved in football and other sports but that none of this activity gets significant coverage in any media – something Junior XSport aims to put right.

There will also be a new property pull-out of up to 20 pages on Wednesdays called Midweek Homes and a new five-page homes and gardens section on Saturdays called Weekend Homes.

The Midweek Homes property supplement will also be a first for Liverpool, which has traditionally seen property advertising steered towards its weekly titles. The supplement will complement the strong property sections in the Echo’s sister weekly titles.

Mark said: “The weeklies are an excellent vehicle for many estate agents but we believe some will also relish the opportunity to reach the whole Merseyside area.”

The new expanded Look

Work has also been done on the paper’s existing platforms, with its women’s section, Look, expanded to an eight-page pull-out and its sport, entertainment and motoring being revamped.

Mark said: “Like so many newspapers, we were offering our readers a relatively thin product on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with advertising volumes driving pagination into Thursday and Friday.

“By moving some sections forward in the week – and enhancing those sections for both readers and advertisers – we have been able to make the Echo’s pagination more even across the week, ensuring that readers get value for their money every day.”