The Kent on Sunday is launching a women’s section and an education and training section, as well as expanding its business supplement.
For around five months, editorial director Ian Patel and publishing director Paul Stannard have been planning the expansion, but had been restricted due to lack of resources at its Bristol-based printers.
The women’s section, Woman on Sunday, will be similar to The Daily Mail’s Femail section, but with a Kent angle. Shelley Whittaker, who previously freelanced for the paper, has been taken on full time as a features writer. She worked for the Kent Messenger as a journalist and was also news editor within Trinity Mirror.
Whittaker will draw on her contacts in the education sector to help with the training pages.
While the main newspaper will continue to cover the main stories about education, the new section will cover issues in more depth.
KoS’s business coverage will also be expanded. The extra pages will mean the newspaper will contain around 128 pages a week as well as around 96 pages for magazines.
Stannard said: “We treat the paper as if it were a paid-for product with strong editorial, which results in revenue growth. We have not been proved wrong with this formula so far, which is why we are taking it forward.”
Kent on Sunday launched in 2002 and was set up by ex-Trinity Mirror staff as the first free Sunday in Kent.
A year later it became the first free newspaper to win the national accolade of Newspaper of the Year at the Regional Press Awards.
The education supplement starts this Sunday and the women’s section comes out on 26 September.
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