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Last editions for JP dailies ahead of weekly switch

Five Johnston Press-owned newspapers published their final daily editions on Saturday as they prepare to make the switch to weekly next week.

The Halifax Courier, Scarborough Evening News, Northants Evening Telegraph, Northampton Chronicle and Echo and Peterborough Evening Telegraph are making the change as part of a major relaunch involving 22 JP titles.

As well as the five dailies turning weekly, eight currently broadsheet titles are turning compact, while three free titles in the North-East are going paid-for.

All 22 titles involved in the relaunch are getting a new design, drawn up by Barcelona-based Cases i Associates.

The first weekly editions of the five former dailies will appear from Thursday, with the new print format backed by 24/7 digital updates on their websites.

All five will also have new iPad apps while further improvements to the company’s portfolio of websites are expected throughout the year.

Chief executive Ashley Highfield said: “For these five the internet will become the hourly and daily pulse of the community with a physical paper provided once a week for analysis, review and comment.

“We expect to see an overall increase in readership and profitability as a result.”

The eight broadsheet titles going compact are the Northumberland Gazette, Harrogate Advertiser, Pateley Bridge & Nidderdale Herald, Knaresborough Post, Wetherby News, Ripon Gazette & Boroughbridge Herald, West Sussex County Times and Bucks Herald.

Free titles the Washington Star, Peterlee Star and Seaham &Houghton Star will be relaunched as paid-for publications.

Also being relaunched with the new designs are the Mansfield Chad, Derbyshire Times, Eastwood Advertiser, Ilkeston Advertiser, Belper News and Ripley & Heanor News.

Each of the relaunches will be supported by a major marketing campaign including outdoor advertising, online media and local promotional activity.

This week’s relaunches are the first step in the company’s strategy to relaunch its 170 paid-for titles as more integrated digital and print hybrid offerings.

Added Ashley: “My ambition is for all of our titles to be more relevant in this digital age, not less relevant, and the relaunches will put us on the right path to engaging even more productively with our audiences.”

5 comments

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  • May 28, 2012 at 11:03 am
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    Holy moley! Will the JP soap opera ever run out of bizarre storylines? They’ve now brought in a blubby Spanish firm to design the two page templates that 22 titles are running with! Hola, amigo, pass me a cerveza – an Arctico one, por favor – while I check Ashley’s daily pulse…

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  • May 28, 2012 at 12:06 pm
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    Soap opera…hmmm…the wobbly-setted Crossroads springs to mind…and we all know what happened to that…

    I’ll get my beanie hat………….

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  • May 28, 2012 at 12:38 pm
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    More telling insights into the way things are heading.
    ‘… the internet will become the hourly and daily pulse of the community with a physical paper provided once a week for analysis, review and comment’.
    No mention of stories in the ‘physical’ paper. Are they all going to be online?

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  • May 31, 2012 at 3:39 pm
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    I have had Chronicle and Echo for 42 years,just had my weekly one delivered dont like it wont be buying again

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