(Sarah Lagan)
The Birmingham Evening Mail today unveils its highly anticipated new look as part of its £1 million plus relaunch.
In
contrast to the general newspaper trend the Mail is doubling the amount
of editions produced each day to seven to serve one of the country’s
most diverse and transient readerships in the country.
Each area
is flagged across the top of the front page with the smaller
communities in that area listed in striking red headlines down the
right hand side. The editions have their own front pages and their own
campaigns where necessary.
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Editor Steve Dyson says: “The editions won’t just be disparate pages inserted on page 20 and 72.
“It’s
slapping them across the head with the newspaper and saying ‘this is
about your area.’ This is a huge reinvention, a branch and root change
of everything we do.”
The masthead has been completely
redesigned in a red tabloid-style box in the left hand corner.
‘Evening’ has been dropped from the masthead although this does not
symbolise a shift to earlier edition times.
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Dyson added: “We’re
not publishing earlier. Whilst we want readers to have geographic
editions and we also want them to have that day’s news in them.”
The
relaunch follows a reported 30-year decline in circulation at the title
and an unsuccessful relaunch in 2002 which resulted in the departure of
its then editor Roger Borrell.
In the last ABC figures circulation was down 10.1 per cent compared to 10.8 on the previous year.
The
Mail is also hoping to attract more female readers by taking design
cues from magazines with more white space, more entry points and
practical features.
There will also be a stronger focus on “positive stories” along with a new shopping supplement on a Monday.
Sports coverage has been doubled to 16-pages and there are new family and travel sections.
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