No takers for UK’s new daily, to close Friday

Britain’s “The New Day” inspired hope that print has a future in the age of digital media but the daily launched by Trinity Mirror on February 29 soon realised the ground reality and announced its demise from Friday.

Britain’s “The New Day” inspired some hope that print has a future in the age of digital media but the daily launched by Trinity Mirror on February 29 soon realised the ground reality and announced its demise from Friday.

A customer holds a copy of The New Day at a newsagents in London on February 29, the day it was launched. (Reuters)

It was billed as the “first standalone national daily newspaper for 30 years” at launch, but the company said although it received many supportive reviews and built a strong following on Facebook, “the circulation for the title is below our expectations”.

“As a result, we have decided to close the title on 6 May 2016. 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,” it said.

Editor Alison Phillips wrote: “Bad news I’m afraid but tomorrow’s edition of The New Day will be the last. We have tried everything we could but sadly we just haven’t reached the sales figures we needed to make it work financially.

“The response over the 50 issues we have published has been extraordinary. I have never worked on a title with such engagement from readers…But the reality was we didn’t have enough of them on a daily basis.”

The daily’s demise conforms to trends of declining newspaper circulation in Britain and the United States in recent decades. Trinity Mirror was aiming for a circulation of 200,000 copies a day, but sales were reported to have been around 40,000.