A group of ex-newspaper colleagues in the West Midlands are to relaunch a free weekly title closed by Trinity Mirror in July.

The Burton Trader ceased publication this summer as part of a series of closures by Trinity which led to the loss of around 90 jobs.

Now HTFP has learned it is to be reborn under a different name, the Independent Trader, from 1 October.

Those involved in the plan include two journalists, reporter Helen Werin and photographer Robin Weaver, who previously worked for the Trader in a freelance capacity.

The new venture will be headed up by local businessman Chris Clark, who is selling his own business to help fund the new paper.

Chris will be both managing editor and editor of the title, while Sadie Norton, a former Trinity employee, will be sales director.

Sadie told HTFP: “Chris had been one of my regular customers and he approached me with the idea of relaunching the Trader.

“It was a good advertising platform and he knew that if his own business was missing that platform there would be a hole in the market.”

The new paper is unable to use the Burton Trader brand name as that is still owned by Trinity, but Sadie said the new title would be “similar” to its predecessor.

It will circulate in Burton and South Derbyshire and will operate from offices at Fairvale House, Derby Street, Burton. The old paper’s offices were based at Union Street.

The Trader’s staff can be contacted on [email protected] for sales matters or [email protected] for editorial.

The Burton Trader, originally part of the late Lionel Pickering’s pioneering Trader Group, was one of nine free weeklies closed by Trinity this summer including the Lichfield Post, Tamworth Times and Walsall Observer.

Comments

Sebastian Faults (15/09/2009 09:44:41)
What larks. Good luck to the IT and all who sail in her (although that’s a buggeringly long masthead), but I wonder what qualifies Mr Clark to edit a newspaper.

Duncan Danley (15/09/2009 10:56:36)
As a former editor of the Burton Trader (20 years ago), I still have a sneeking regard for the paper and for what Lionel Pickering achieved in his empire.
If Chris Clark is a free-spirited entrepreneur, then I wish him well.
But if you are NOT a journalist Mr Clark, then please stick to managing and leave the editing to the professionals.
Starting a new venture is difficult enough as it is, without trying to do something you are not qualified to do.
I wish you all the best at the new Independent Trader and hope you give the Burton Mail as good a run for their money as they got in Lionel Pickering’s day.

tmm employee (15/09/2009 15:07:23)
Good luck – hope you prove TMM wrong for their short sighted decision. More power to your keyboards!

Ivy Likes (15/09/2009 16:19:39)
Hi Nick, sorry, Duncan. Glad to see your copy still needs professional subbing, 20 years later!

Hengist Pod (16/09/2009 13:06:13)
Jolly good stuff. There should be of this sort of thing. It would be great to see many more of the titles closed by Trinity Mirror revived in this way, with people showing them how it should be done and turning a decent profit at the same time

FAST WOMAN (16/09/2009 16:15:12)
I don’t think we’re in a position to knock non-journalists heading up new or revived papers.
Many of the 100 years old plus survivors of the current print massacre were launched by erudite local press pioneers who set themselves up as proprietor/editor in their home towns. None had Victorian style NCTJ exams.
It’s also possible that the new papers will be quirky and far more in touch with their potential readership than the lookalike bland efforts of the big groups, filled with generic content in a production hub many miles away.
Some launches will fail, some will survive. I wonder if this time round any of the big groups will swoop to buy the most profitable?
Good luck to the Independent Trader team.