The Canary is launching a daily weekday national newspaper after an injection of cash from a used-car website founder in 2025.
Director and CEO of the Canary Steve Topple said the paper is being launched to give a different perspective to “corporate media” and described “the threat of a Reform government in 2029” as a driving force behind the launch.
The 32-page tabloid will feature a mix of original reporting and content taken from the Canary’s website, such as politics and human rights pieces, as well as coverage from international guest authors, TV, sports, and fashion coverage, plus puzzles and horoscopes.
It will print Monday to Friday and cost £1.20 at newsagents, “so we will be the cheapest tabloid on the market, tying with The Sun”, said Topple. Three staff have been hired to produce additional content for the paper, which will be edited by the Canary’s current editorial team. If the launch goes well, Topple said it will move to a “fully-fledged newspaper operation”.
An initial 20,000 copies will be distributed to 6,500 newsagents across England and Wales from 26 May, followed by a further 5,000 copies to 1,500 additional outlets two weeks later.
“People have been saying that for years that print is in decline, but essentially from our perspective it’s not dead yet,” said Topple. “We’re the Canary, I’m not going to beat around the bush, there is a gap in the print market for an actual left-wing print newspaper.”
He said the corporate media, “from the spectrum of the Daily Mirror right across to the Daily Express”, is owned by “a monopoly of a handful of companies”, adding: “There is a space for a truly left-wing progressive daily print newspaper that will sit alongside The Mirror, The Sun, The Daily Mail, but do what The Mirror and The Guardian, for example, should be doing, which is give positive front pages if Zach Polanski said something brilliant, openly discuss Israel’s ongoing genocide in West Asia and give a demographic of readers something they can’t come in to get.”
He added: “The only equivalent of what we are doing, I suppose, would be the Morning Star, and that isn’t even an equivalent of what we’re doing,” he said, adding that the Canary is “shouty” and “swears a bit”.
[Read more: The Canary is Impress-regulated publisher with most upheld complaints]
Target audience is older working class
Topple believes there is an older, largely working-class audience not being served by print media in the UK: “namely the 11 million upwards people” who do not vote consistently and are not politically engaged by “corporate media”.
He added the paper will also appeal to working-class print readers over 45, whom it sees as potentially “voting for Reform in 2029”, by offering an alternative political perspective.
“And if we can produce something which appeals, but also is informative for both those demographics, that serves to politically engage them and show them that there is an alternative perspective to what the entirety of the corporate media produces, then we’ve succeeded effectively,” he said, adding putting the Canary “smack bang” in the middle of national print titles means a “potential for a whole new audience”.
How is the Canary funding the launch?
The Canary’s new print edition is funded by an investment the company received last year, after it dissolved its staff co-operative structure set up in 2022 and took on a major shareholder.
Cecil Hetherington, founder of Northern Irish website Used Cars NI and chair of home sales platform Propertypal, was appointed a director of the newsbrand in August
A company owned by Hetherington, Ulidia Investments, holds between 25% and 50% of the Canary’s shares.
The company does not disclose the size of the investment from Hetherington, but it has led to a boost of the Canary’s Instagram following from 9,000 to 200,000 “in the space of nine months”, increased its content coverage with an expanded team and supported a Youtube relaunch for June 2026.
“We produce upwards of 40 articles a day, and are currently working on redoing our entire Youtube channel with around 16 individual shows now by the end of the year,” Topple said.
The Canary’s team has expanded from ten to 50, he said. Some 20 of the 50 are full-time, with 30 part-time, plus “a bank of around 20 freelancers,” said Topple.
The three new full-time hires include a layout subeditor, a fashion editor, and a sports editor, with Topple adding that most original content will come from its pre-existing team which will keep costs low.
“We’d have a dedicated team working on that and delivering content specifically for the print edition,” said Topple.
According to Similarweb, the Canary attracts around 500,000 websites visits per month of which 60% are based in the UK.
‘No one’s done this in decades’
The Canary has opted to launch its paper at a time when most national print papers are seeing a decline in print circulation. This year, Reach joined other national titles in pulling its public circulation figures for national papers including the Mirror, Express and Star. It also comes at a time of print sites being closed across the UK or major publishers combining print operations.
The last UK national newspaper launch, positive newsbrand The New Day, was launched by Reach (then called Trinity Mirror) in 2016 and lasted just two months.
“We’re not daft. We know that this is a big undertaking,” said Topple, adding he keeps “getting raised eyebrows”.
“When we spoke to the printers initially, they were like, you do realise no one’s done this in decades, and I was like, well, yes, of course,” he said.
Topple added the current distribution of 25,000 copies is “an underestimate of the potential that we could shift, but we don’t [want to] over egg the situation”.
“It’s likely that we’ll upscale from there,” he said, adding research has been carried out to identify hotspots where “multiple demographics marry into potential high demand for a Canary print edition”, and it has established “good networks of local left wing people across the country” through its coverage in the the run up to local elections.
Topple believes the title could sell 100,000 copies a day, which would put it at around the same level as The i Paper and the Daily Express.
He believes the paper will reach break even, or even turn a profit, but said: “This particular revenue stream is not being done for that purpose… We’re doing it because it needs to be done, and we have the capabilities to do it.”
The title will carry print advertising sold by an “ethical ad agency” that the Canary already works with.
Currently some 80% of the Canary’s revenue stream is made up of regular reader donations (similar to The Guardian model) and 20% website advertising, which is mostly sponsored content.
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