A regional publisher has confirmed its pro-European Union newspaper will have its initial four-week run extended.
Archant says The New European, launched in the wake of last month’s vote to leave the EU, has exceeded sales targets and will continue to be published on a rolling basis.
The newspaper’s retail distribution is focused on London, Liverpool, Manchester, the south of England, Scotland and Wales and other strongly Remain voting areas.
Contributors to the paper so far have included Alastair Campbell, Miranda Sawyer and Peter Mandelson.
The New European’s launch issue
Developed entirely internally, The New European went from concept to newsagents’ shelves in just nine days.
It is thought to be the fastest newspaper launch in UK history.
Matt Kelly, Archant chief content officer and the paper’s launch editor, said: “We’re thrilled at the reaction and support we’ve seen for this most unorthodox newspaper launch. We will continue to publish into the zeitgeist until that moment passes.”
Will Hattam, Archant chief marketing officer, said: “Pop-up publishing is something that only Archant could have delivered.
“We have the scale to produce a quality print product for a national audience, but also the agility to turn things around fast and cost-effectively enough to profitably service a community that’s popped into existence overnight.
“We’ll only produce the paper for as long as our readers still want it.”
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Good. Several weeks after the referendum, our (?) decision to leave the EU is still a hot topic of conversation, so the keeping the newspaper going, at least for the foreseeable future, is going to be relevant.
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‘ will only produce the paper for as long as our readers still want it.”
Will this also apply to the daily and weekly papers too?
Looking at the steep and consistent decline in sales figures reported by ABC,their days must be numbered too
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I don’t beleeeeeeve it.
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The likes of Dick Minim, Harry Blackwood and a host of others couldn’t wait to tell us all how bad an idea this was and how it wouldn’t last a week. Yet here we are, a few short weeks later, and it turns out this paper hasn’t done too badly at all. By some measures, it may even be labelled a success.
Perhaps Harry and Dick don’t know everything after all. I’m sure both will be swift to acknowledge as such in the comments yet to come. Who knows, they may even try some positivity for a change.
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I think this is a great idea – known target audience, interesting USP, and also some balls from the industry doing something completely unusual. Newspapers don’t have to exist in perpetuity, this shows exactly how they can work – serving an audience around a specific issue.
I’m impressed to see the advertising departments have got into this, from my Archant experience flexibility was not something they could cope with, especially when the product was not planned in advance and set against a sales person’s individual target.
Expect to see something similar when the next election comes round.
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Norwich was a strong remain area in an East Anglian sea of Brexit but the New European has been largely ignored in this city. Piles and piles of unsold papers, and according to the newsagents I have spoken to (there have been a few) a very low take-up.
Meanwhile, in other news Archant Norfolk is axing half of its staff photographers and ditching its paid columnists….
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“…Archant Norfolk is axing half of its staff photographers and ditching its paid columnists….”
The successful conversion from professional quality content and staff to 100% RGC is almost complete!
The next step of having businesses booking their own adverts online thus clearing the way for ad reps and the vast number of managers managing the reps to be dumped is surely well on its way too
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We’re out of Europe, Get over it.
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