A newspaper which went from daily to weekly three years ago is to publish two editions a week from the New Year, it was announced today.
The Exeter Express and Echo has told readers it is to publish a Monday edition as well as a Thursday edition from 16 February.
The move was initially flagged-up by LW chief executive David Montgomery in an interview with HTFP in March.
David said that the Echo’s move from daily to weekly in 2011 came too early and had left a “gap in peoples’ lives” in the city.
The new Monday edition will be priced at 50p and will be in addition to the current weekly Express & Echo which is published on a Thursday priced at £1.
Editor Jon-Paul Hedge, pictured, said: “It’s an ambitious plan but Exeter is an ambitious city. It has seen tremendous growth over recent years and is leading the way in so many areas.
“We have listened to our readers, who said alongside our digital platform they want us to publish more. I’m delighted that we’ll be hiring additional staff to meet this demand with more of the content our readers love.
“With Exeter City and East Devon editions, both Thursday and Monday’s newspapers will reflect the views of residents, that business growth and shared aspirations mean a bright future ahead.”
The Exeter Express & Echo was one of four daily titles taken weekly by Northcliffe Media under its then chief executive Steve Auckland in 2011. It had previously published as a daily for 106 years.
At the time of the frequency change, the paper had an average daily circulation of 17,102 and, according to the most recent ABC figures, now averages 18,985 copies as a weekly.
David told HTFP in March: “Some of the conversions from daily to weekly have been too early. We have at least one city where we went from daily to weekly where we will be reconsidering that decision.”
Naming the city in question as Exeter he went on: “The Express & Echo is very robust as a weekly paper but there is a feeling that there’s a gap in peoples’ lives. We’re unlikely to go back to a daily paper but we are looking at launching a second day a week.”
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A gap in people’s lives? You really are kidding yourselves. People adapt and change, they don’t yearn
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Oh s*d it!
Let’s do Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays as well – and a pink ‘un.
And start recruiting some more journalists to fill them with quality editorial, get the subs back and re-open local offices – and hurry, before all the other publishers start copying us.
‘Oh mother I have been asleep for so long, it must all have been an awful dream!’
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As an Exeter resident, I’m with Monty on this. There’s a gaping great gap in my life – not for a second distinctly mediocre edition of the Echo but for a half-decent newspaper that occasionally delivers some real news!
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Yep, it’s a real swine every day to drive into the city past those flag-waving protestors, stood around their braziers, manning the barricades and chanting “We want more Express & Echo…”
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If the chief executive of our company is incapable of correctly using an apostrophe in the word people’s then, as a greater symbol for the care and attention which is truly placed on the value of quality editorial content then I think that just about sums matters up…
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Is this exciting new product being brought to us by the same management team which brought us the exciting and successful Western Morning News on Sunday? I think we should be told!
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Track four, side two, on that great Who album, Who’s Next?
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Far more to do with squeezing some revenue out of the ‘civics’ locally than anything the actual reader wants. Some of us here are asking ourselves whether the chief exec of the local council would be better off being named editor-in-chief of this new Monday edition…
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Yes, Mr Hedge, methinks the growing city of Exeter has grown out of the habit of newspaper purchasing while you weren’t looking. Too many other publishing options for consumers now – some lively social forums on independent websites, fabulous arts publications, a superb independently run city website and two great city magazines (not yours btw) just for starters…
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Scoop is right – that was a pretty daft thing to say. Publishing more often though is a positive move at this stage.
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Could work IF enough staff employed to ensure top quality copy and pictures
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Isca Intel is correct.
While opto makes a fair point, what are the chances of that? Given the cover price of the Monday paper is going to be half that of the Thursday one, it seems reasonable to assume the resources invested in it won’t be great.
Then again, filling the ‘Exeter City’ edition with stories about the footie team is going to be a pretty big ask!
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This WILL work – otherwise heads will roll.
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Can anyone tell me where we can now find the Editor who was the excitedly keen proponent of the ‘daily to weekly’ proposal when at Torquay, who also stopped by briefly at Exeter to weave his magic?
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Local World seem to be busking it. Wasn’t their plan a big drive towards digital and less newspapers? Introduction of editions in Cambridge and now this suggests their grand vision was probably before its time. There are still decent print revenues to be had while it is hard to find anyone actually admitting to making anything near a wad from the web. Much back-tracking going on from Monty.
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As a newcomer to Exeter I appreciated a point of reference about the place when I first moved. When I wanted to know what was going on I got a cheery NON reply……… nothing much;that’s why we like it!! The glossy mags published by Devon Life( apart from advertising private schools and eating ;staying at cosy pubs where more eating is involved) did little to showcase the real heart of the City. I follow the news On Line and the Exeter Daily has been an asset. in this.
A Monday paper with top quality journalists reporting on real issues for an evolving cultural city must be a great movement forward.!
Yes Yes,,,,,,, If I want to find something out I CAN google. Yes Yes…..if businesses want to advertise their wares they can use Twitter. But using excessive social media always seems to have its’ drawbacks!(trawling through endless twerpy tweets are nauseating)
When I moved to Exeter answers to questions posed about Exeter
were……. “Don’t know to be quite honest” I guess these folk are usually dishonest ,either that, or not well informed!
Reading a good quality newspaper twice a week may help to keep people informed so that some news/information could even be referred to and…. (guess what?) retained!!
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Johny Rotten. I wrote more in hope than expectation. Damn it, won’t someone see there is still a market for good quality journalism and pictures. Not as big, but big enough. and bigger than digital when it comes to real money!
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So, the Echo sold over 100,000 copies a week when it published daily and now sells less than 19,000. It might just be me but I’m struggling to see how this suggests there’s any great demand for a Monday edition.
While it might well sell a few copies (I can see fans of the football and rugby clubs buying it), if I was the editor I’d be very concerned that it might impact negatively on Thursday sales – especially when you consider that paper will now have a shelf life of just four days.
I’d wager most of those who buy the Echo are now in the habit of doing so when they’re at the supermarket for their weekly shop and that the chances of them going out of their way to pick up a second edition are negligible unless, that is, the paper gives them a compelling reason to do so. Now, what are the chances of that?!
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So basically it was a mistake to make the Echo weekly three years ago and make 50% of staff redundant – hurrah!
Now there is a gap in people’s lives….. which should read there is a need to get the remaining staff to produce more output!
Sales fall, editors come and go…and Local World’s business plans continue to be written down on the back of a fag packet.
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