Regional publisher Johnston Press is to relaunch three free newspapers in the North-East of England as paid-for titles.
The Washington Star, Peterlee Star and Seaham and Houghton Star are all converting in response to what the company calls “numerous requests from readers and advertisers.”
Promising an ‘additional investment in journalism,’ it says the new-look titles will be bigger, brighter and better designed than their predecessors.
The Peterlee Star will also get a revamped wesbite with the two other titles getting an online presence for the first time.
Stuart Birkett, managing director of the company’s North-East Press division said: “North-East Press are delighted to announce that the Washington Star, Peterlee Star and Seaham & Houghton Star will all soon re-launch as three separate new paid-for local newspapers for their respective communities.
“An additional investment in journalism will mean three new bigger brighter and better designed papers covering more local news, sport and information.
“The move comes on the back of numerous requests from readers and advertisers for a paid-for newspaper for these three areas.
“The communities of Washington, Peterlee, Seaham and Houghton have all changed considerably since the Star Series was originally launched as a series of free newspapers and the time is now right for a fresh new newspaper to reflect and support these increasingly important communities.
“Additionally, the Peterlee Star website, will soon be joined by a new site for the Washington Star, with a Seaham & Houghton star website following shortly after. All three websites will incorporate improved social networking and commenting functionality and be an integral part of the new multi-media strategy for each newspaper.
“The relaunch of the Star Series as quality paid-for newspapers and the associated increased digital opportunities will allow advertisers to benefit from a much improved environment in which to showcase their goods and services.”
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So how many new journalists will be taken on? After all, this is an ‘investment,’ which surely means there is cold, hard cash involved, yes?
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Dear Mr Newspaper Boss
Please would you let me pay for my local newspaper rather than have it for free. It is unfair that other people in other areas have to pay when we don’t.
A reader
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I remember TM managers trying something similar a few years back, only they didn’t bother to increase the editorial content or quality. They just basically put a cover price on a free and sat back waiting for the extra “revenue stream” to flow in.
It didn’t.
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Dear Mr Newspaper Boss,
Thank you for responding so promptly to my last letter. I can’t wait to hand over my money.
I know this is cheeky but could you also please make sure the new paper is properly formatted so it looks the same every week, could you put a lot more of those tempting reader offers in and could you reduce the amount of content generated by those pesky journalists.
Yours in anticipation,
A reader.
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Remember when frees were touted as the future? Trouble is, the model doesn’t stack up when you have to pay for distribution and pay more and more for newsprint… with the ad stream in steep decline.
I hope going paid works out or there will be yet more job losses.
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A paid-for Peterlee Star? There’ll be one hell of a party in The Argus Butterfly tonight!
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Pay for them? Sounds like they can’t even give them away for free! Who thinks these things up.
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Why does the newspaper heirachy when they make changes do it because readers (and in this case, advertisers) want or asked for it. I don’t believe a word of it.
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