National World’s steady upgrade of its city daily print titles has continued with another relaunch taking place over the weekend.

The new-look Portsmouth News hit newsstands on Saturday, the latest of the company’s metro titles to be overhauled by their daily press division.

Starting last April, the relaunch programme has been described as a ‘re-imagining’ of the newspaper by National World’s executive chairman David Montgomery.

A new set of print presentations have been introduced which break from the traditional ‘inverted funnel’ narrative style to incorporate alternative storytelling formats such as listicles, in numbers, data visualisations, picture explainers and more.

The new-look Portsmouth News went on sale at the weekend.

Daily press division publisher Tim Robinson explained the thinking behind the new look, which also includes full-page graphics, digests and the use of summaries and diary pages to look back on the last seven days of news and look forward to what’s coming up.

Said Tim: “We are adapting our titles to take account of the changing reading behaviours and needs of our audience. We are looking to engage readers for longer with a new visual language, innovative designs and a rethinking of the news agenda which accentuates the positive, exciting side to life in our big cities.

“The battle for readers’ attention is acute and print is challenged more than ever before. But we are using innovation and the creativity of our print teams to breathe new life into our dailies.

“We strongly believe our newly formatted newspapers will resonate strongly with readers in Portsmouth, just as they have done in cities across the UK where we have adopted this approach.”

Content for each of the relaunched titles is supplied through National World’s digital reporting teams, along with national wires, agencies, submitted opinion and community news.

The Portsmouth News relaunch follows those of Yorkshire Evening Post, Sheffield Star, Sunderland Echo, Shields Gazette, Lancashire Post, Blackpool Gazette and the Edinburgh Evening News.

A montage of the new-look Portsmouth News print edition pages.

The new-look pages of the Portsmouth News, which went on sale at the weekend.

A sports spread within the new-look Portsmouth News which went on sale at the weekend.