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Regional daily relaunches with ‘crisp’ new look and running order

A regional daily has relaunched today with a new running order and a “crisp, clean new look”.

The South Wales Echo has also introduced a series of new and revamped daily pullouts as part of the changes, which will see the letters page pushed further back in the book to make way for news on pages eight and nine.

Any news pages behind the centre fold have also been brought forward, while any features pages before the fold have been moved back to give the paper a “more natural flow”.

The relaunch sees the Echo follow suit after similar changes were made to Trinity Mirror sister dailies the Liverpool Echo, Manchester Evening News, Birmingham Mail and The Chronicle, Newcastle, over the past 12 months.

The front cover of today's new look Echo

The front cover of today’s new look Echo

To coincide with the redesign, adverts have gone up in Cardiff city centre, a social media campaign has been launched and thousands of sample copies have been distributed to commuters.

The main postcode areas covered by the Echo have also been canvassed and key advertisers have been targeted.

The Echo’s cover price remains at 70p.

Editor Tryst Williams said: “Cardiff and South Wales have undergone massive changes over recent years, and our new-look Echo will reflect this.

“With huge developments re-shaping our city centre, Wales reaching the Euro 2016 tournament, Aston Martin building a new factory in the area, and the Champions League final on its way in 2017, there’s never been a better time to shout from the rooftops what a great capital city Cardiff is.

“Our redesigned Echo will be the perfect platform to champion and celebrate the city, while also continuing to highlight the issues that matter most to our readers.”

He added: “The relaunch has only been possible thanks to our fantastic project team who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes – while also carrying out their daily duties – to ensure the new-look edition is as successful as possible.”

10 comments

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  • June 6, 2016 at 9:25 am
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    A new look is one thing, but the main reason its sales have been in a tailspin for years – it is based in Cardiff, yet is not in the top two best-selling Welsh newspapers – is because it has neglected the South Wales valleys, where it has lost tens of thousands of readers. Will that be addressed, or is this just a cosmetic change?

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  • June 6, 2016 at 10:29 am
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    What they actually mean is that the they’ve adopted the same design as the Liverpool Echo and the Birmingham Mail to make it easier when they’re all subbed from the Sahara.

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  • June 6, 2016 at 11:55 am
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    Relaunches and redesigns are all well and good but how do you get people to pick them up in the first place? No-one will notice it until you shout from the rooftops. Social media isn’t really the way because that’s only really going to be promoting the online service. You need prominent stands in newsagents and supermarkets and you need to go to all of the places where the paper is likely to be read. I’m still amazed no local papers are sold in pubs and coffee shops. There are no newspaper sellers hanging around town squares and tourist attractions (where the promotion of some money-off vouchers inside would go down very well). The problem is that a lot of marketing teams for local papers are either non-existent, patronising or just plain rotten.

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  • June 6, 2016 at 12:52 pm
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    They moan that print is not being given enough attention. They moan when a print title IS given attention. Moaners gonna moan.

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  • June 6, 2016 at 2:13 pm
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    There used to be newspaper sellers on every corner in the town centre calling out the news: “Mafeking Relieved!”, delivery vehicles racing about bearing the company colours, billboards on many railings etc. And, if you were too stingy to buy your own copy, you could read yesterday’s news from the wrapper when you bought your fish and chips.

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  • June 6, 2016 at 4:30 pm
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    Sledge: My local seller’s war cry was “Atchagooble” with the accent very much on the first syllable. Didn’t matter what the splash was, he never changed..

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  • June 6, 2016 at 9:31 pm
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    Roger: They don’t sell them in coffee shops and pubs because most decent ones will have a free news rack with a couple of papers to choose from.

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