A weekly newspaper series has launched an expanded edition to cover its patch away from its two “core areas”.
The Cornwall-based Packet series has launched the new free edition, which covers Truro, Redruth, Camborne and West Cornwall.
The new 64-page title replaces a previous free 24-page edition of The Packet, which covered Truro, Redruth, Camborne, and the West Cornwall Packet, which featured a change front and back page.
The series also features two paid-for weeklies, the Falmouth Packet and Helston Packet.
Owner Newsquest says the new edition offers readers “significantly more content”, including pages dedicated to news from the area alongside coverage of issues affecting all of Cornwall and a new supplement covering rural life, entitled Cornish Country Life.
An entertainment news section and letters page also features, while the number of pages dedicated to sport is increased from one to five.
Editor Steve Smith, pictured, said: “In the past 18 months we have grown our audience online considerably – up 60 per cent year-on-year in 2019 – and that showed us that our readers had an appetite for news outside of our two core areas of Falmouth and Helston.
“We saw the opportunity to give readers a better news service in print and online with the new title, especially in Truro, Redruth, Camborne and west Cornwall which we believe are currently underserved.”
The new edition remains free to pick up at supermarkets on its patch.
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I don’t know the Devon / Cornwall areas other than holidaying there so am curious to know if there is a genuine demand for another free paper in that area or if it’s a defensive tactic in light of other groups moving into what they feel to be under served territories on competitor patches?
I’m thinking Archant muscling in on Reach territory in Torbay with a new weekly having earlier announced they’d be crashing into JPIs backyard with a digital launch in Peterborough, both area they claim to be poorly served for news.
Either way you can’t blame NQ for being proactive and any new newspaper opening is good news to my ears.
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