A north Nottinghamshire town has a new paid-for weekly with the launch of the New Free Press by a group of four businessmen.

The title was chosen in tribute to the now-defunct Free Press, which closed some 15 years ago.

The first edition is on sale at newsagents and supermarkets around Sutton-in-Ashfield priced at 30p for the 32 pages of “traditional weekly local news”.

Editor and chief executive Paul Richardson is a former Nottingham Evening Post journalist who has experience of reporting, subbing and sport, as well as heading up the Post’s free newspapers for ten years.

He said: “A group of four local business people in the Ashfield area decided it was time the area had its own independent paid-for weekly newspaper.

“It is a traditional local weekly paper with local stories.

“We are going to campaign and shout up for the area.

“We are also going carrying traditional wedding and obituary reports, community news and pictures to become a voice for this area.

“We are looking forward to putting something into this area.”

Paul has a staff of four journalists – two senior and two junior reporters – an experienced ad manager with an extensive sales background, as well as two telesales reps and a field sales rep.

The paper expects to increase pagination to 40 pages within a few months.

The other names behind the new venture are Philip Marsh, who was formerly in health management, Paul McDuell, formerly in the pharmaceuticals industry and Alistair Macdiarmid, former main board director of a major hosiery house.

The New Free Press is circulating in an area covered by the Nottingham Evening Post, Mansfield Observer, Mansfield Recorder and the CHAD newspaper, which has free and paid-for copies in Sutton-in-Ashfield.

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