New Day newspaper targets 'time-poor' readers

The New Day will go on sale on 29 February

The UK's first new national newspaper for 30 years launches next week, giving "a ruthless edit of the day" for "time-poor" readers, its editor has said.

Daily Mirror publisher Trinity Mirror launches the New Day paper next Monday.

Editor Alison Phillips said readers "only have 30 minutes" and the paper would provide "what they need to know".

Chief executive Simon Fox said he hoped the paper would "arrest the decline" in newspaper readership. The New Day will be 40 pages and sell for 50p.

It will have a presence on social media, but not its own website.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme a week before the launch, Ms Phillips said: "Whilst we have continued to put newspapers out in a fairly similar way for 100 years, there has been a massive nuclear bomb gone off in the media world with the advent of the internet, and we have created a newspaper which reflects that and understands that.

"So, whilst now there is a breaking story and people have got news alerts on their phones all the time, what they quite often want is a ruthless edit of the day - this is what they need to know."

She added: "Most people, and we have spoken to thousands of readers over the last year or so, they only want 30 minutes, they only have 30 minutes, everyone is time poor nowadays."

She said the paper would be politically neutral and not feature an editorial leader column, adding: "We are trying to create a mood of optimism and positivity that is lacking elsewhere."

'Clean sheet of paper'

Mr Fox, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, told the BBC: "Half a million readers each year choose not to buy a newspaper and we don't think it has to be like that if the product is right.

"We have started with a clean sheet of paper. We very much hope we will be able to arrest some of the readership decline."

The New Day will be available for free at 40,000 retailers on the launch day, followed by a two-week trial at 25p. It will then move to its full price of 50p.

Reports had suggested the new paper would be a bid to replicate the success of the i, which the Independent is to sell to Johnston Press for £24m.

But unlike the i, which is a light version of the Independent, the New Day will be a standalone title.

Mr Fox said: "This is a completely new newspaper. It's not a 'Mirror light' in any way."

Earlier this month it was announced that the Independent and Independent on Sunday newspapers would go online.

The last print edition of the Independent will be published on Saturday 26 March, while the last Independent on Sunday will be on 20 March.