Regional publisher Local World has relaunched two of its weekly titles in Hertfordshire following an editorial shake-up.
As previously reported on HTFP, Hertfordshire Mercury editor Julie Palmer has been given additional editorial responsibility for the Advertiser series, which has now been renamed the Midweek Mercury.
The new-look Hertforshire Mercury, which is sold in the east of the county around Hertford, has hit the streets today with the Midweek Mercury, distributed free in North Herts, due to follow next Wednesday.
From now on the two titles will share an online home at hertfordshiremercury.co.uk, which also has a new design.
Local World said the changes were designed to provide fresh new content for readers and offer advertisers “a consistent new platform to reach an affluent Hertfordshire audience.”
It said the Midweek Mercury aimed to build on the “strong legacy” of the Stevenage Advertiser and Hitchin Advertiser to evolve into a new product designed to excite readers and advertisers alike.
The paper will target “a high-spending ABC1 demographic” with door-to-door delivery in selected areas of Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Stevenage Old Town and Knebworth. It will also be available to pick up from high-profile locations across these areas.
The publisher is claiming a combined audience of 342,800 for the two print titles and the website.
Said Julie: “I am very excited about the journey we are about to embark on.
“We want to maintain and build on our position in the community. We want to be the team people come to when they have news to share. We want to be the first port of call when residents want to know what is happening in their community.”
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“We want to be the team people come to when they have news to share” – unless you live outside the area of the “high-spending ABC1 demographic” in Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Stevenage Old Town and Knebworth, in which case we don’t want to hear from you.
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Ric Euteneur – at least they are upfront about deliberately targeting high-spending areas.
Some free titles ‘re-focus’ their distribution to deliberately exclude low-income estates and post codes without telling their readers, advertisers and often their staff.
That causes all kinds of confusion, for a newsdesk who know most of the news is created by certain parts of town but will never be read by them, advertisers who still think they are targeting ‘value conscious’ readers and wonder where their customers have gone, and the ABC1s who wonder why they get news about crime, fires, deprivation, housing wrangles, council cuts, bus service woes, poor pensioners, noisy neighbours, HMOs and welfare cuts alongside ads for AGAs, bespoke conservatories and Jaguar dealers?
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