National World’s website for Manchester has rebranded “with a new purpose and ethos centred on the people of the city” in an attempt to build its own niche in the city.
Manchester World was launched in 2021 as National World created a portfolio of new city websites to go with its legacy titles like the Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman acquired when it bought JPI Media at the start of that year.
The Manchester site, which has a team of six, has now rebranded with the new tagline: “Ordinary Mancs, extraordinary stories” as well as a logo inspired by the city’s bee symbol.
Editor Adam Lord told Press Gazette the people of Greater Manchester “will be at the heart of everything we do”, telling stories “from their point of view” and “celebrating” them.
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The shift in purpose takes place as Manchester World seeks to find its own niche in a local news market already dominated by the Manchester Evening News (MEN), and supplemented by long-read newsletter start-up the Manchester Mill which has been going since 2020 and has more than 3,200 paying members.
According to Similarweb, the Manchester World website received 770,230 visits in July versus 36.5 million for the Manchester Evening News.
Lord acknowledged it is a “really crowded marketplace in Manchester, and I’m not just talking about the MEN, there’s loads of lifestyle and specialist websites”.
He said: “Obviously, we want to grow the audience. I think part of that is brand awareness. What I would say is that I don’t see the MEN as a competitor. What this is about is finding our place in Manchester, and giving people something different.”
He added: “It’s all good reporting on these major events, but it’s about how it impacts people and what they think about it.”
As well as Lord, Manchester World has two news reporters, a video journalist and journalists covering Manchester United and Manchester City.
He added: “With a smaller team, we can’t cover absolutely everything, which is why I say that trying to compete with the MEN would be folly.”
The relaunch will focus on ensuring that all stories are covered from the perspective of those affected, hoping to complement reporting from other titles, he said.
While National World has given its support to the relaunch, including the new branding coming from its marketing company MNA Digital, Lord said it was a “bottom-up, not top-down” decision.
“It’s always been something I wanted to do, but it’s come from the team and worked its way up. And there’s been a lot of support across the wider National World business for it, which I really appreciate.”
This means the relaunch is not something that will be rolled out to all sister titles as although there is a “big National World umbrella… each brand is effectively its own little enterprise as well”.
Lord said: “I’m grateful that National World have allowed us to try some stuff, and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
Ultimately, Lord said, increasing the site’s brand awareness and audience will have “a commercial impact, positive ones if we get it going in the right direction. But what I would say is that I am keen to grow, potentially, a different kind of audience to what local news has been trying to… I do want to grow a more sustainable audience.”
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