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| The New Day lives up to its promise to be a different kind of daily | The New Day lives up to its promise to be a different kind of daily |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| It’s a newspaper all right, but not as you know it. The New Day made its eye-catching debut with a free issue that is more magazine than newspaper, a feel-good, colourful, sub-editorial confection that lives up to its promise to be a novel addition to the newsstand. | It’s a newspaper all right, but not as you know it. The New Day made its eye-catching debut with a free issue that is more magazine than newspaper, a feel-good, colourful, sub-editorial confection that lives up to its promise to be a novel addition to the newsstand. |
| It screamed new and alternative, beginning with the masthead - turquoise or duck egg blue? - and on through a succession of digest-style news pages, big pictures and short features. The centre pages were devoted to sport, but without any news or match results. Now that is different. | It screamed new and alternative, beginning with the masthead - turquoise or duck egg blue? - and on through a succession of digest-style news pages, big pictures and short features. The centre pages were devoted to sport, but without any news or match results. Now that is different. |
| Aware of the public’s disenchantment with newsprint, The New Day’s bouncy “mission statement” said: “We know this can’t just be another newspaper. It has to be a new type of newspaper.” | Aware of the public’s disenchantment with newsprint, The New Day’s bouncy “mission statement” said: “We know this can’t just be another newspaper. It has to be a new type of newspaper.” |
| Related: New Day will be profitable this year if it attracts readers, says Trinity Mirror | Related: New Day will be profitable this year if it attracts readers, says Trinity Mirror |
| What editor Alison Phillips and her team have delivered is part Metro, part i, part women’s magazine, and - fair to say - a distinctive daily paper. | What editor Alison Phillips and her team have delivered is part Metro, part i, part women’s magazine, and - fair to say - a distinctive daily paper. |
| The fast-paced 40 pages won’t detain readers for long, which is the point because it was created on the understanding that its target audience - aged 35 to 55 - is time poor. | The fast-paced 40 pages won’t detain readers for long, which is the point because it was created on the understanding that its target audience - aged 35 to 55 - is time poor. |
| Nor will readers be stretched by the content. The editorial matter was mostly light-hearted and relentlessly upbeat. Rightly, as promised, there was no discernible political bias. In fact, there was no politics of substance whatsoever. | Nor will readers be stretched by the content. The editorial matter was mostly light-hearted and relentlessly upbeat. Rightly, as promised, there was no discernible political bias. In fact, there was no politics of substance whatsoever. |
| “Today’s big question” was a debate about the investigatory powers bill (aka snoopers’ charter) in which two double-barrelled writers, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Julia Hartley-Brewer, fired off alternative views in barely 200 words. | “Today’s big question” was a debate about the investigatory powers bill (aka snoopers’ charter) in which two double-barrelled writers, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Julia Hartley-Brewer, fired off alternative views in barely 200 words. |
| Amid the sea of froth were four serious spreads - on the European Union referendum, on Tanzanian killings of albino children, on school bullies and a sensitive piece about children who act as carers. | |
| That article about infant carers was chosen as the paper’s poster-style front page. It showed a picture of a little boy carrying two shopping bags with the headline “Stolen childhood”. There had something of the old-style Independent viewspaper feel about it. | That article about infant carers was chosen as the paper’s poster-style front page. It showed a picture of a little boy carrying two shopping bags with the headline “Stolen childhood”. There had something of the old-style Independent viewspaper feel about it. |
| Phillips told my colleague, Mark Sweney, that “we’ve thrown out all the previous thinking on how a newspaper should be structured.” In fact, she appears to have taken on board previous innovations and then given them a mighty spin in order to produce her new newsprint baby. | Phillips told my colleague, Mark Sweney, that “we’ve thrown out all the previous thinking on how a newspaper should be structured.” In fact, she appears to have taken on board previous innovations and then given them a mighty spin in order to produce her new newsprint baby. |
| Unlike previous national newspaper launches, there is not much of a financial risk for its publisher, Trinity Mirror. | Unlike previous national newspaper launches, there is not much of a financial risk for its publisher, Trinity Mirror. |
| It has spent a good deal on television adverts. It has chosen heavy-duty newsprint. It has given away many thousands of copies today without much advertising content. | It has spent a good deal on television adverts. It has chosen heavy-duty newsprint. It has given away many thousands of copies today without much advertising content. |
| But editorial content is, clearly, not going to cost much. It is drawn from Mirror staff and agencies. Printing and distribution won’t have been too much of an on-cost. | But editorial content is, clearly, not going to cost much. It is drawn from Mirror staff and agencies. Printing and distribution won’t have been too much of an on-cost. |
| But will it find that mystical gap in the market? Given the experience of i and Metro, I can imagine people wanting to read it. I doubt, however, whether they will pay to do so. | But will it find that mystical gap in the market? Given the experience of i and Metro, I can imagine people wanting to read it. I doubt, however, whether they will pay to do so. |
| From tomorrow it will be 25p for its first two weeks, and 50p thereafter. That means The New Day will be more expensive than several pop papers - the 10p Daily Express, 20p Daily Star, the 40p i - and only 10p cheaper than the Daily Mirror. | From tomorrow it will be 25p for its first two weeks, and 50p thereafter. That means The New Day will be more expensive than several pop papers - the 10p Daily Express, 20p Daily Star, the 40p i - and only 10p cheaper than the Daily Mirror. |
| It should have been free for at least two weeks in order to have won the given itself time to build an audience. And I do think, despite its lightweight editorial approach (and perhaps because of it), that it would find a readership of at least 200,000. | It should have been free for at least two weeks in order to have won the given itself time to build an audience. And I do think, despite its lightweight editorial approach (and perhaps because of it), that it would find a readership of at least 200,000. |
| I note that i was worried enough by the newcomer to publish a front page blurb calling itself “Britain’s only concise quality newspaper”. Let battle commence! | I note that i was worried enough by the newcomer to publish a front page blurb calling itself “Britain’s only concise quality newspaper”. Let battle commence! |