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Newspaper publisher launches two new weeklies

Two new weekly freesheets have been launched just a month after the idea was first mooted.

The Grimsby Post and The Cleethorpes Post are now being circulated to homes, businesses and other locations across the two Lincolnshire towns only weeks after the editorial, advertising, circulation and marketing teams at the Grimsby Telegraph came together to devise the new papers.

Telegraph editor Michelle Lalor told HTFP that around 85pc of the Posts’ content is exclusive with unique news stories, features, entertainment news and columnists.

Local and regional round-ups are taken from the Grimsby Telegraph and its sister Northcliffe papers in Hull, Lincoln and Scunthorpe.

The move could herald a circulation and advertising battle in north-east Lincolnshire with the independent part paid-for, part-free Cleethorpes Chronicle whose circulation is now 11,000 copies a week and which celebrated its 100th issue in February.

The two ‘Post’ titles replace the old Grimsby and Cleethorpes Life newspaper and draw on a format devised by parent company Northcliffe for its other freesheets.

Michelle said: “We felt the time was right in our marketplace to change our free product.

“It now has more substance, with an emphasis on unique content which sits alongside our daily title.

“It has been extremely well received and we are delighted at what we have achieved in such a short time frame.

“Teamwork really was the essence and I would like to thank everyone within the Grimsby and Scunthorpe Media Group and our colleagues at the regional production centre in Hull for making this happen.”

  • The latest editions of The Grimsby Post and The Cleethorpes Post
  • Just under 22,000 copies of The Cleethorpes Post are published and delivered on Wednesdays while 42,300 copies of The Grimsby Post are printed and distributed on Thursdays.

    There is also an e-Post available online at thisisgrimsby.co.uk and thisiscleethorpes.co.uk, using PageSuite’s page-turning software.

    Mark Price, MD of Grimsby and Scunthorpe Media Group, said: “Pulling together a new free weekly newspaper within such a tight time frame from conception to birth – so to speak – is nothing short of a magnificent achievement.

    “This has been a truly great team effort and one that revitalises our position in the marketplace and gives us a fantastic commercial platform from which to capitalise on.”

    Marketing for the new papers was done through hand-delivering thousands of leaflets around Grimsby and Cleethorpes and billboards were also used across North East Lincolnshire.

    No new jobs have been created as a result of their launch and content is produced by existing staff.

    Comments

    Pete (07/04/2010 14:54:40)
    So existing staff are doing more work for the same pay. Another triumph for caring, sharing Northcliffe.

    bertiereed (07/04/2010 15:32:14)
    Whilst fully appreciating the effort put in on the re-design, I remember the days when a free newspaper “launch” meant setting up a new distribution in a new area – this is only a re-branding as it’s simply covering the same areas as the previous titles did!

    Reality Bites (07/04/2010 16:41:14)
    When did putting a new cover on a freesheet formerly known as Life, formerly known as Target, become a new launch? A monkey in silk is a monkey no less and taking so long to pull together a new front cover and send out lots of leaflets is nothing short of mind boggling.