Southampton’s new free Sunday paper is to be called the Southern Sunday Independent.

A print run of 45,000 will be distributed to newsagents and drop zones around Southampton and the Hampshire area from tomorrow to capitalise on the increasing importance of Sunday as a trading and shopping day.

Editor Ian Murray told HoldTheFrontPage: “The senior team has been very much involved in this and has been coming forward with ideas all the time on how to improve the product, something I expect they will continue doing.

“The reporting team has already found support copy and we’ll be looking to fill up the back end with national sport and premiership football.”

“We ultimately went for the name because of the title down the coast, and because we thought it was a distinctly different read to the Daily Echo to call it a Sunday Echo.

“There were a number of working titles which ranged from the Sunday Echo and Sunday Metro to what was chosen in the end, the Southern Sunday Independent.”

He added that the response from advertisers to the dummies has been very positive.

The title follows the lead by the paid-for Plymouth-based Sunday Independent, keeping the two titles from the same stable neatly in step with each other.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Independent is advertising for an editor to lead the Plymouth team.

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