A New Day for New Media
In an exciting move for journalists and PRs alike, a new print newspaper launched this week, the first standalone daily newspaper to be introduced in the UK for 30 years.
Launched by Trinity Mirror, the New Day newspaper comes just after the Independent announced plans to scrap the print edition entirely, and focus on producing content as a digital outlet. Going against all of the preconceptions about print media dying out, New Day has launched solely as a print newspaper, with no online presence other than its Twitter feed. So what is it about the outlet that makes it different from any of its predecessors, or any of the other mainstream nationals already out there?
The team here at Alfred have been keeping a close eye on how the paper has progressed throughout the week, what content they are featuring, how it could work for PRs and where it can go from here.
The first thing we noticed was how the style of the newspaper reads much more like a supplement or a magazine than a traditional national. With sections including ‘5 Smiles’, ‘Memory Bucket’ and ‘Share It’, the content is generally upbeat, and feature led. One of the more unusual features is that the sports pages are not confined to the back, but take pride of place in the centre of the magazine. With this move, New Day aims to make the entire publication readable to everyone, of all ages and interests, casting aside gender specific sections and embracing gender neutrality. Trinity Mirror itself states publicly that New Day is opting for the “optimistic approach”, which we admit is a refreshing sentiment, considering that the majority of news dominating the globe is downright depressing.
Another welcome change that challenges the conventional print format is that the paper aims to be opinion free – offering readers the hard facts, or a balanced, two-sided debate. People in today’s digital age have grown savvy to media tactics and are aware that publishing houses are owned by powerful people, and instead have begun to look further into stories in hopes of building their own opinions, rather than being told what it should be. New Day has tapped into this ideology, and will be a welcome change, especially amongst younger readers.
Over the past five days of New Day, we’ve enjoyed the interesting feature-led approach, the in-depth look at topical news in the ‘Behind The News’ section, and the insight into what it took to create the paper, in today’s Big Read section. Available for an introductory price of just 25p, could this be the fresh start that print journalism needs to begin to build back a bigger presence?