Daily Mail publishers Associated Newspapers has reportedly got as far a name and cover price for a new Sunday tabloid following the collapse of the News of the World.
The Independent today reports the company has already produced a dummy copy of the paper – which would be called Sunday – which it proposes to sell for 50p with an initial print run of 50,000.
However, the same report then went on to claim the launch has been put on hold because the Mail on Sunday enjoyed a ‘sharp uplift in circulation of around 30 per cent last Sunday”.
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Former Fleet Street journalist Norman Giller, meanwhile, reports that a team at Associated Newspapers has been working ‘around the clock in a closed room at Derry Street on a dummy based on their enormously popular website [Mail Online]”, adding that there were ‘even whispers of a test run for the paper this weekend”.
Giller said the paper would be ‘celebrity-led, with sport playing a huge role”, and claimed ‘the irreverent Kelvin MacKenzie, who recently jumped ships from The Sun to the Daily Mail, is apparently being lined up as a leading voice”.
Talking about proposals for News International to launch a Sunday Sun, Gillard said that James Murdoch’s testimony on Tuesday to MPs that there were no immediate plans for a new Sunday newspaper had come as a huge blow to a team of journalists “burning the midnight oil” in Wapping to work on the project.
Gillard reports that a sports team led by Mike Dunn had been hoping to hit the streets with the new tabloid to coincide with next month’s start of the Premier League football season.
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