The Daily Mail is considering plans to launch a new Sunday tabloid to capitalise on the closure of the News of the World, according to Reuters.
Reuters quoted a “source close to the situation” who claimed Associated Newspapers – the national newspaper division of Daily Mail General Trust – would ‘do an internal dummy run this weekend and would launch the following weekend if it was a success”.
The report today said: ‘The internet domain name thesunday.co.uk was registered on 7 July by a party called Colin Wilson Engineering. Sundaylite.co.uk, which was originally registered in 2007, was renewed on 8 July by an individual named Simon Dooner, according to the Whois domain names database. No further details were provided by the registrants.”
The news agency also claimed that names under consideration are The Sunday and The Sunday Lite – adding that Kelvin MacKenzie could be a columnist on the newspaper. Former Sun editor MacKenzie left The Sun last month to join the Daily Mail.
According to the latest circulation figures from ABC, the Mail on Sunday was the only national newspaper that grew circulation in May. Average circulation was up 0.01 per cent to 1,918,751.
The News of the World’s circulation was down 7.1 per cent to but it remained by far Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper with 2.6 million sales.
The Mail on Sunday has confirmed that it is increasing its print-run to three million copies this weekend. And according to reports, the Daily Star Sunday is upping its print-run from 600,000 to more than two million.
Trinity Mirror-owned titles The People and Sunday Mirror are understood to be doubling their combined distribution to more than three million.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog