Rumours still abound of new Sunday tabloid
According to a blog post by Mark Kleinman, City editor at Sky News, which does not appear to have been widely reported elsewhere, a “clutch of prominent City financiers is in talks to back the launch of a Sunday tabloid newspaper aimed at sating an appetite for salacious celebrity gossip that was once met by the News of the World.”
Kleinman says that Keith Harris, chairman of Seymour Pierce, the investment bank, and Martin Clarke, a former executive at Permira, the private equity firm, are “among a group of people in discussions about investing in the new venture,” which seems to still be at an early stage of planning with no funds committed as yet.
This follows on from an article on MediaGuardian two weeks ago which named the prospective chief executive of the new business, registered as Phoenix Newspaper Publishing Limited, as Rupert Howell, ex-commercial director of ITV; and Sue Douglas, a former editor of the Sunday Express, as also being an initiator of the project.
Kleinman says that Phoenix would operate throughout the week online but publish a newspaper only on Sundays; and adds: “My understanding is that Douglas, Howell and their colleagues are likely to take a decision about whether to launch their title sometime in May.”
Senior media journalists that Newsline spoke to suggested that the likelihood of funds being raised may be slim; and that the project might have had legs only if it had launched ahead of the Sunday Sun.
MediaTel’s next event is The Future of National Newspapers on the morning of May 14 with:
- Dominic Carter, Commercial Director, News International
- Chris Pelekanou, Global Commercial Director, Guardian News & Media
- Ray Snoddy, BBC presenter and MediaTel columnist
- Guy Zitter, MD, Mail Newspapers