Independent Cleethorpes weekly confident despite Northcliffe free relaunch

The Grimsby Telegraph has relaunched its free weekly newspaper Life as the Grimsby and Cleethorpes Post with a new emphasis on local news.

Originally called Target, the free weekly satellite title has been delivered for over 24 years to homes in the Grimsby and Cleethorpes areas in Lincolnshire.

In April 2007, Target was rebranded as Life, a light and colourful free newspaper that focused on the towns’ social aspects and events. But under its latest guise it will have more emphasis on local news.

Michelle Lalor, editor of the Grimsby Telegraph, told Press Gazette that: “At the time of Life’s launch we felt the need for something in Grimsby a little bit lighter, a little bit brighter, something more along the lines of a magazine type format.”

The new Grimsby Post and Cleethorpes Post will focus primarily on local news with around 85 percent of content being unique from The Telegraph.

Lalor said: “Three years on and we felt, from the responses we were getting from advertisers and readers and our own general feelings, was that it needed a different look, it needed a more serious news edge to it than what Life presented.

“We thought we should be focused on more local news and elements that are similar to what we have in The Telegraph to represent what we do more as a business.”

The layout and design of the Post series draws on the format used by parent company, Northcliffe, for its other freesheets.

The Post has a joint circulation of 64,300 and is in competition with The Cleethorpes Chronicle which was launched in March 2008.

The Chronicle is the only independently owned newspaper in the area and claims a weekly readership of 28,000.

The Cleethorpes Post is printed and delivered to over 22,000 homes on Wednesday and the Cleethorpes Chronicle is published on Thursday costing 45p.

Nigel Lowther, director and editor of The Cleethorpes Chronicle said: “We are confident in our paper and the strength of our own readership and distribution.”

“Competition is fine, we are comfortable with competition, and we are confident about it as well, and that says a lot.”

The Chronicle celebrated its 100^th edition last February.

“We are still only a young company, but in those two years we have grown enormously. It is a David against Goliath move, but we are confident in what we do, and how we do it.”