A declaration of independence has been decreed by a Surrey weekly after it separated itself from a sister edition.

Newsquest’s Epsom Guardian is now a stand alone paper whereas previously readers had only seven pages of local news slipped into the Sutton Guardian.

An online launch message (left) heralded the 88-page first edition of the new paper which rolled off the presses last Thursday.

It contained 16 pages of news and letters, five pages of leisure, an Epsom Derby race special and a free online single download from a local band.

The new title will focus on Epsom, Ewell, Leatherhead, Ashtead, Banstead and the surrounding villages with content spearheaded by long-serving reporter and Epsom native Helen Crane.

Guardian Series assistant editor Matthew Knowles told HTFP: “People in Epsom deserve a decent paper so we have doubled our news coverage.

“The thinking behind it was that we’ve got a good area and a good market so we’re going to capitalise on that.

“Epsom is a great patch and I’m filling the paper quite easily. The three Guardian papers – Epsom, Sutton and Croydon – complement each other well.

“It goes to show that gone are the days when free papers had no news.

“They are good sized pages and one of the good things about working for the Guardian Series is that stories get decent space.”

Comments

Lister (10/06/2009 08:39:50)
Ah. Someone in Newsquest with vision and enterprise. Strange but true. A little glimmer of hope in a very dark tunnel. Best of luck, colleagues.

OldSUB (10/06/2009 14:59:09)
Stand-alone edition but I bet more pages to be centrally subbed.
Is there an increase in sub-editors to take into account the extra pages?
Please do tell us, Mr editor