Trinity Mirror publication, The New Day, will be available Monday to Friday from 29 February across the UK and will be given away free from over 40,000 retailers on its first day. After that it will trial at 25p for two weeks before going up to 50p.
The initial giveaway print run will be two million copies, with subsequent print runs to be decided in response to factors including circulation, price points and distribution.
In contrast to rivals it will be print only. A spokesman said: “People can interact with the publication through Facebook and Twitter but we will not be posting news and other content online. There are lots of other sites doing that really well so that is not the space we are going to compete in.”
The 40-page tabloid format New Day will be printed on 54gsm SCA Grapholnvent paper, which the publisher said is brighter and thicker than most newspaper grades.
Most of the production will be at Trinity Mirror Printing’s Watford facility with additional printing at Trinity's Oldham and Birmingham sites. It will go to press at 7pm and will slot into existing print production capacity. There are no changes to production staffing.
Trinity Mirror said The New Day will be an entirely new newspaper, not a sister title or light version of the Daily Mirror. It will cover news and topical content but with what the company calls “a modern style and tone, aimed at a wide audience of women and men who want something different from what is currently available”. This includes an “upbeat, optimistic approach” and a politically neutral editorial stance.
Editor Alison Phillips said: “There are many people who aren’t currently buying a newspaper, not because they have fallen out of love with newspapers as a format, but because what is currently available on the newsstand is not meeting their needs.
“This paper has been created as a result of customer insight and is the first newspaper designed for people’s modern lifestyles.”
Trinity Mirror chief executive Simon Fox said the publisher believed a large number of the million-plus newspaper readers lost over the past two years could be tempted back to print with the right product.
“Revitalising print is a core part of our strategy in parallel with digital transformation and there doesn’t have to be a choice between the two – newspapers can live in the digital age if they have been designed to offer something different.”
The move comes just over a week after Independent Print Ltd announced the Independent newspaper would close its print edition and go online only and sister title i would be sold to Johnston Press, subject to shareholder approval, for an initial £22m in cash plus a further £2m in April 2017.
Johnston Press is a key competitor to Trinity Mirror in the regional newspaper market but Trinity Mirror has denied the two are connected, saying a new publication cannot be dreamt up overnight.
When it was launched in 1986 political neutrality was also a key selling point of The Independent.
The i newspaper was the last new daily national newspaper to be launched, in October 2010. However it was an sister edition to the Independent, using much of the same copy subbed down. This has led Trinity Mirror to claim The New Day is the first truly new paper launched in the past three decades.
