A former daily newspaper heralded its move to a new era of weekly publishing yesterday by staging a live webchat asking readers what they thought.
The Northampton Chronicle and Echo was one of five Johnston Press owned titles to go weekly from this week alongside the Halifax Courier and the newly-renamed Scarborough News, Peterborough Telegraph and Northamptonshire Telegraph.
Chronicle and Echo news editor David Summers met shoppers in the town’s Grosvenor Centre to get their reaction to the new-look paper and described the feedback as “overwhelmingly positive.”
Later news editor Daniel Owens hosted the two hour webchat on the CovertItLive platform to give readers a further opportunity to have their say.
The webchat saw readers giving mixed views with many readers saying they liked the paper but complaining that the comments functionality on the website was not working properly.
Daniel admitted there had been some “teething problems” but said there had also been “plenty of positive feedback.”
Defending the frequency change he said: “We have to realise that people’s lives have changed and as a result so have their reading habits. People may not be able to find the time to read a paper every day but hopefully they can dip in and out of the new Chron over a few days.”
The full webchat can read here.
Meanwhile the Scarborough News marked the launch of its new 136-page weekly edition with a story about the first person to buy it.
Retired accounts clerk David Davies was first through the doors of the paper’s office to pick up his copy at 8.30am yesterday.
“I have bought the paper for 27 years and am really looking forward to reading The Scarborough News,” he said.
“I like every aspect of the newspaper, it really takes an interest in what is happening in the town,” he added.
Other relaunches saw a new-look for two of the biggest existing weekly titles in the group – the Derbyshire Times and the Mansfield Chad.
Derbyshire Times group editor James Mitchinson tweeted: “The NEW Derbyshire Times has landed, and it looks spiffing! Hope you agree.”
Sister title the Belper News also received a makeover with what editor Julie Crouch described as a “striking new look.”
Said Julie: “We’re thrilled with our new look and think the designs are fresh, attractive and engaging. We’ve worked hard on the content to ensure everything our readers want and expect is included – along with a few extras!”
Here’s the front-page of yesterday’s “spiffing” new-look Derbyshire Times….
…and here’s how sister title the Mansfield Chad ushered in the new era.
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Don’t like either. Dreadful splash headline in the first and drearily presented splash in second with not a clue about what the guy actually did. Did our hero dial 999 or drag someone from a burning wreck?
Back to the drawing board.
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Is pink the new black?
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The template is very obvious. The Bucks Herald seems to have been the first of the new titles on the streets, as it publishes on Wednesday; much the same as these, but using a serif headline font.
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At least these newspapers have told people. The Halifax Courier seems to have slipped in with no publicity.
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Love the blurb on the front of the DT – “At the Highfield”
One of those strange coincidences that crop up in newspapers all the time
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one word missing here – design
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I agree with ‘Curious': whoever is likely to be interpellated by a headline that sceams about the guilt of a ‘sex-mad’ killer who plunged a knife into his lover during a night of ‘twisted debauchery’ that ended in ‘bloody murder’.
How bland.
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I think Binary Boy has missed my point. Apart from SEX-MAD, you get none of the blood and gore etc from the splash headline. You get CLOWNE MAN IS GUILTY (yawn).
You could liven it up with SEX-MAD KILLER’S ORGY OF BLOOD – or whatever – but not that he lives in Clowne and he has been found guilty of something (liking sex perhaps?).
The strapline/subdeck isn’t the splash headline.
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Look like a bunch of Clownes to me.
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Well, I like Curious’ comments…but then I like Binary Boy’s comments too….but which is better?….
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Johnston Press will go bankrupt in 12 months
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Once upon a time, newspaper front pages were exclusively advertising.
Then they started having news on them. There was even a strenuous move to get rid of the advertising from the front altogether, because it interfered with the reporting of news.
Now we seem to be going full circle, with the only “news”on the front being teasers, including the so-called “splash”….
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En mi opinión ponderada, los nuevos periódicos mirada maravillosa. Me siento orgulloso de ser un lector!
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Why has the Derbyshire Times switched to a more modern look while still retaining what is probably the ugliest masthead in Britain? It looks as if the office boy was allowed to go mad with the letraset some time in the 1970s and it just stuck. I know mastheads are sacred cows, but this one should have been taken to the slaughterhouse. Other JP papers have modified their mastheads as part of this process, what makes this Chesterfield clunker so special?
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Oh do shut up you miserable lot. I work for one of the newspapers which has been relaunched and I’ll have you know that readers – yes, READERS, not bitter and twisted dead wood – are very impressed with the new layouts and new content. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
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LOL@GetALife.
Stroppy mare.
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