The Mirror's new newspaper lasted just 9 weeks
The New Day, aimed at people who have ‘fallen out of love with newspapers’, will put out its last edition tomorrow.
THE DAILY MIRROR’S publisher will shutter its new UK newspaper just nine weeks after its launch as the title’s sales hit only a fraction of the company’s targets.
Trinity Mirror this morning confirmed it was closing the national The New Day, which it launched earlier this year, as circulation figures had been “below … expectations”.
The new title was launched with a £5 million ad campaign in late February and the company said today in a statement that it had “received many supportive reviews and built a strong following on Facebook” during the short run.
The Guardian reported sales in recent weeks had been hovering around 30,000 copies per day, roughly one-seventh Trinity Mirror’s target of 200,000.
“Whilst disappointing, the launch and subsequent closure have provided new insights into enhancing our newspapers and a number of these opportunities will be considered over time,” Trinity Mirror said.
No love
Trinity Mirror unveiled the title with the idea of reaching people who “have fallen out of love with newspapers”, according to editor Alison Phillips.
The initial cover price was put at 25p and was due to double to 50p after two weeks, however the publisher held off on the increase amid reports it was being given away for free in many locations in March.
Philips posted on Facebook this morning that “we have tried everything we could, but sadly we just haven’t reached the sales figures we needed to make it work financially”.
“There clearly were many people who truly loved the idea of a different kind of newspaper which spoke to them. But the reality was we didn’t have enough of them on a daily basis.”
Trinity Mirror’s overall trading figures painted a bleak picture, with like-for-like revenues dropping 9.3% for the most recent quarter.
Its local titles, the Irish Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, have also been among the worst hit with the overall plunge in print circulation figures. The daily paper shed around 20% of its sales between early 2014 and late 2015, while the Sunday edition had a similar but slightly smaller fall.
The company launched a Dublin-focused site called Dublin Live last month, following on from what it said was the success of Belfast Live.
