Family Friendly Sunday Newspaper To Launch Next Year

A new mid-market Sunday newspaper, Life On Sunday, is planning to launch in the new year with a focus on family values and a distinctly anti-tabloid feel.

The title is the brain-child of a group of newspaper executives led by Nick Thompson, a former circulation director at News International. The paper is looking to sell around 150,000 copies initially, but its founders hope this will increase to 500,000.

According to The Observer, a number of journalists and advertising staff have already been recruited and will operate out of the paper’s headquarters in the north of England to counter the London-centricity of the existing media.

It is understood that the first issue of the paper could be on news-stands seventeen weeks after the money has been raised. Profits will be reinvested in the title for the first four or five years, but will be donated to charitable causes after that.

Thompson worked in the commercial department at News International and was recruited to help launch Sunday Business in the mid-nineties. He also helped to launch Sport First into the tabloid market and has worked for the Daily Mirror.

Reports suggest that Thompson has hired Cleland Thom, a former journalist who now runs a consultancy company, to work on the title. He will join Charles Gardner, an executive at regional newspaper group, who is also involved in the project.

Life On Sunday will be the first new title to launch since Richard Desmond rolled out the Daily Star Sunday into the fiercely competitive tabloid market in September last year (see NewsLine Feature: Sunday Star Hopes To Shine).

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