Archant launches new edition of the Eastern Daily Press for Fenland

Archant has launched a new edition of the Eastern Daily Press for Fenland.

The EDP has not taken on any new staff for the edition, which will be put together by staff currently working on weekly Archant titles in the area.

The paper covers Norfolk, east Cambridgeshire and northern parts of Suffolk.

Archant Norfolk editor-in-chief Nigel Pickover (pictured) described the EDP’s sixth daily edition, which will carry around six change pages, as a “big investment into Fenland”.

“We are very proud of our product, and very proud of Fenland,” he said. “Some have got the impression the EDP may have left communities but we didn’t and we haven’t.

“I must emphasise, too, this is not going to be a Norwich paper foisted on Fenland – it is going to be a Fenland paper for Fenland people.”

Asked at a launch event if there is room for a new paid-for paper in the area, Pickover said: “To get our stories is an expensive business. We have offices throughout the region – and you have to pay to get a newspaper of quality.”

He added: “I think when they see it and read it, they will realise just how committed we are and what the EDP can offer.”

The new edition will be edited by John Elworthy, who will continue to edit fellow Fenland titles the Cambs Times and the Ely Standard.

“It doesn’t mean Archant is neglecting its weekly titles – far from it,” he said.

“But this provides another platform for our pool of talented journalists and shows most of all the commitment that our parent company Archant has to local newspapers.

“It’s a very proud day for me but also a very proud day for local journalism.”

The average daily circulation of the EDP in the first six months of 2013 was 47,231.