The launch of a new free weekly in a Midlands town has been praised by the chief executive of a local council.
The Swadlincote Post was launched last Friday as a 24-page paper with an initial print run of 10,000, so the South Derbyshire town could have its own dedicated title.
It was created by former Northcliffe sales manager David King who teamed up with former Johnston Press journalist Louise Birkett, who is the paper’s editor.
The team received a phonecall on the day of the launch from Frank McArdle, the chief executive of South Derbyshire District Council, which is based in Swadlincote, congratulating them on the paper, which he was reading at the time.
David said there had been a “fantastic response” to the paper from the public and local businesses and praised the team for their work towards it.
He said: “Overall we were delighted with the whole launch and everyone that contributed to it was brilliant, ensuring we delivered on time.
“It was great to see the hard work and effort that everyone had put in paid off. I don’t think I have felt like crying so much in one week!”
Swadlincote is already covered by two daily titles – with it being in the heart of the Iliffe-owned Burton Mail’s patch and also part of the circulation area of Northcliffe’s Derby Telegraph.
But David believed the town, which has a population of around 40,000, should have its own title.
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Not very pretty, is it? Clearly don’t think they need design…never mind, they’ll learn. Hope they have time to. Good luck, guys!
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Not that anybody read it, but is The Swadlincote Times no more then?
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“The team received a phonecall on the day of the launch from Frank McArdle, the chief executive of South Derbyshire District Council, which is based in Swadlincote, congratulating them on the paper, which he was reading at the time.”
It must have been a short call, as there were only actually five news stories and four sports stories. The few other bits and pieces just seemed to be adfeatures loosely ‘designed’ to look like news content.
Its design was amateurish, and that’s being generous. It’s apparently perfectly acceptable to increase your point size and leading to fill if you’re short on content, which the SP obviously was.
David King originally argued that Swadlincote deserved its own newspaper with ‘extensive coverage of area news and events’ – can he really now argue that the content of last week’s first edition was in any way representative of what’s been going on in the town? I think not.
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Is this a nostalgia publication?
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