Three new jobs have been created after a weekly newspaper decided to go online-only.

Asian Sunday newspaper has announced the move which will see it rebrand as Asian Sunday Online.

The move has prompted the creation of two new journalist roles and a sales executive position.

Its Asian Standard print sister title will now publish editions for Bradford, Kirklees, and the North-East of England – replacing the regional editions previously run by Asian Sunday.

Asian Sunday was first established in 2011 in Bradford and was initially aimed specifically at the South Asian community, but the company says it has grown over the last nine years “to become an integral part of Bradford’s other diverse communities”.

It has also revealed plans to expand its presence into a further seven cities by 2025.

Editor Fatima Patel said: “We feel a strong digital presence is important and have been building up this side of the business for some time in response to the rapidly-changing marketplace. But this has become even more crucial now, as we are unable to meet and socialise in the way we used to.

“When Covid hit everyone so hard in March, we sat down to remedy how we could continue getting out the news to our loyal and growing readership, while sustaining the livelihoods of our team and the business, during such testing times.

“Like so many inspirational businesses around us we began to realise that there were ways of finding positives amid the challenges.

“So, it now feels to be the right time to turn Asian Sunday into a digital platform for our readers, where they’ll be able to view exciting online debate, video news stories, features, cooking shows and more.

“Every Sunday our viewers can now catch up with important news stories on our Asian Sunday TV YouTube channel or on our website and social media platforms.

“However, we appreciate that a traditional newspaper still means a great deal to many people and felt it would be wrong to abandon our loyal avid print readers. So, we decided to continue publishing our free weekly title, Asian Standard, which will replace the regional print titles of Asian Sunday.”