A new news title which until now has been primarily digital is to launch as a weekly print newspaper – creating four journalism jobs in the process.

Newsquest has announced The National Wales will be published weekly from this Saturday after sales of two special print editions “exceeded expectations”.

Four new jobs have been created as a result of the move – a sports writer, two news reporting roles and a print content/production editor.

The title was launched on 1 March with the aim of being a primarily digitally-focused service covering the whole of Wales, with print editions being run only on special occasions.

An initial launch edition was followed up in print with a Senedd election special on Friday.

At the time of the launch, former South Wales Argus editor Kevin Ward urged Newsquest to make a print editions a regular monthly feature – but the positive reader response has now prompted the publisher to take it weekly.

Editor Gavin Thompson, pictured, said: “From launch day, the response from readers has been overwhelming with so many people saying this is what Wales needs.

“Sales of the launch edition exceeded our expectations and we have an overwhelmingly positive response to the second edition too, so decided to keep going and take the title weekly.”

Earlier this week, Gavin revealed 500 digital subscribers had so far signed up to the title.

He has previously pledged to hire more staff as the number grows, starting with a dedicated political correspondent when it reaches 1,000 paying subscribers.

Added Gavin: “Our long-term goal for this title remains to build a sustainable quality online news title based on digital subscriptions.

“But we can see there is a strong appetite for it in print so we are creating these new roles to provide the additional content needed for a weekly newspaper.

“We feel sport is an important part of the mix for a print title but we don’t intend to just replicate the coverage of top level men’s rugby and football already done elsewhere.

“Instead, our sports coverage will consist of features on Welsh sport, including coverage of topics that don’t always get the same exposure.”