An independent publisher has brought a paid-for newspaper’s publication date forward 24 hours to bring it out before its free titles.

Taylor Newspapers has announced the switch for The Oxford Paper, with its first Thursday edition being brought out today.

The weekly was launched amid a “newspaper war” in August 2016 in direct competition with Newsquest’s regional daily the Oxford Mail.

Two months prior to that, Newsquest launched countywide free weekly the Oxfordshire Star days after Taylor vowed to take on regional press industry “Goliaths” with the expansion of its Oxfordshire Guardian series to cover Henley-on-Thames.

The Guardian series keeps its Thursday release date, although it is not available from its distribution points as early as the Paper is in shops.

Taylor has also launched a new companion website for the Paper, which is set to go live today.

The publication date switch and web launch have been promoted with marketing material on Oxford buses and at the Kassam Stadium, Oxford United Football Club’s home ground.

Howard Taylor, managing director of Taylor Newspapers Ltd, said: “It makes absolute sense. All credit to my team for changing the order of things and launching a new website for the title www.theoxfordpaper.co.uk within the space of just a few weeks.

“We have been planning this for some time and have finally brought the switch to fruition this week.”