A weekly newspaper in the Archant-owned Kentish Times group will next week become the latest title to experiment with a part-paid-for and part-free distribution strategy.
The Dartford and Swanley Times will be given out to 45,000 homes in the Swanley district and also be on sale at its regular 40p price. The title, which has been redesigned and has an editorial staff of 14, will incorporate the group’s existing free title The Dartford and Swanley Express.
Until now The Dartford Times had ran a Swanley edition but will now incorporate that coverage throughout the paper in its new title.
Kentish Times group editor Melody Foreman said: ‘We have asked readers what they’d like to see in their local newspaper and the new Dartford and Swanley Times is the result.
‘The team are tremendously bouyed by the relaunch of this popular title and have been working magnificently to give audiences what they have asked for.”
Foreman said there would be further plans to ‘invigorate and modernise’the newspaper and website.
Archant London editorial director Richard Thomson said: ‘The relaunch of The Dartford and Swanley Times completes the re-positioning of the famous old Kentish Times titles in south east London and north Kent which has seen the Archant titles become much more competitive in the market place.”
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