New weekly business title to launch in North West

A new local business newspaper is being launched in August covering Chester, Wirral and North Wales.

The Business Journal is the brainchild of Arthur Porter, who launched the award-winning Crain’s Manchester Business newspaper that closed when its Detroit-based owners pulled funding in June 2010

Speaking to The Guardian, Porter said the Business Journal was ‘basically the same concept’as Crain’s Manchester Business.

It will focus on the areas of Chester, Wirral and North Wales, which Porter said were ‘situated between the two big cities of Liverpool and Manchester and consequently they don’t get the feed of local business news which will help them grow their businesses”.

Porter said the new title ‘is going to give people exclusive, breaking news”, adding: ‘There has been an awful lot of people that have come on board with me, we’ve got law firms, we’ve got accountants, we’ve got digital agencies who have already agreed to be a part of this.”

He is currently looking for more businesses to partner with.

‘There are opportunities for people to get into the paper through editorials, opportunities for them to get into the paper through advertisement and sponsorship and really we would love to talk to anybody on sales side or even on reporting, give us a chance to hear your story,’he said.

The website will go live on 20 July with the weekly print edition launching towards the end of August.

It will have an initial print run of 7,000 copies going to senior executives who employ five or more staff in the region.

Porter said they receive it on a controlled circulation basis at first but the aim was to then convert them into subscribers.

It will cost £58 for an annual subscription or £2 to buy single editions from newsstands.

The digital edition will be distributed to 38,000 e-mail recipients in the North West.

The Business Journal will be up against the business sections of the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo, as well websites such as theBusinessDesk.co.uk.

Porter told The Guardian: ‘It is always a threat for the advertising door as they say, the piece of pie only goes so far, but there is nothing like this that is giving people breaking news that can help them grow their business that is local.

‘Most of the other media that is around is either in a glossy monthly, bi-monthly situation, the daily papers that are around there are really serving Liverpool and Manchester, and not really serving the local business communities in our area.”

Crain’s Manchester Business closed less than three years after it launched. US parent company Crain Communications said that despite circulation of around 11,500 a week the title had been unable to generate sufficient interest from local advertisers.