A further 44 newspapers to be relaunched by Johnston Press this month

The second phase of relaunched Johnston Press newspapers began this week.

Twelve titles including the Eastbourne Herald and Hastings Observer will be refreshed, with a further 32 scheduled to be rolled out throughout October.

Keith Ridley, editor-in-chief of the East Sussex titles, whose papers relaunched todaylast week said it was about "evolution and not revolution".

He added: “We have a smart new look and a lot of new content. But we will continue to evolve over the coming months. We want to attract a new audience without alienating those who already enjoy us.”

The move is part of Johnston Press’s plan to relaunch 170 of its paid-for titles, slotting them all into one of four new template designs.

Back in May, a total of 23 newspapers were relaunched in an initial rollout phase. Five daily titles were changed to weekly and five broadsheet designs were altered to tabloid.

Although all titles were originally scheduled to have been revamped by November, the project has been pushed back until January 2013 – as originally reported last month – after the chief executive of Johnston Press, Ashley Highfield, admitted they had receive some feedback from the initial rollout that was “not so good”.

He said: “We know all our Phase One titles are making more money, both from advertising and from circulation revenue, but we want to try different types of marketing and sales promotions to see what works best to maintain ABC readership numbers.

“So another review period after Phase Two will be hugely beneficial.”

Topics in this article : Johnston Press