Regional and local newspaper publisher Newsquest has announced the launch of a new free weekly newspaper in East Lancashire.
The Post will be distributed to 10,000 homes for the first time on Friday and is a sister title to daily the Lancashire Telegraph, which covers Blackburn and the wider East Lancashire community.
The Telegraph will continue to provide coverage of news, council business and sport, while The Post will focus on human interest stories and features in the more affluent areas of the region, according to Newsquest.
It will also actively promote the Telegraph – which has an average total circulation of 11,800 copies according to ABC figures – and feature business, entertainment, travel, education and fashion content from the daily title.
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It follows a similar move by Newsquest in February of last year when it launched The Bolton Post, a free weekly sister title to daily The Bolton News, which the publisher claims has been received positively, describing it as “a strong commercial success”.
Newsquest North West’s group editor Ian Savage, who oversaw the launch of both papers, said: “The Post gives us the opportunity to reach a wider audience and new readers, as well as promote our daily newspapers.
“The Post is significantly different to the dailies – it has no crime, court, council or sport coverage which the daily titles cover in excellent fashion already.
“Instead, it gives readers news about people and events in their areas, at the same time enabling advertisers to reach new customers.”
The Post will cover districts including Darwen, Feniscowles, Lammack, Langho, Mellor, Pleasington, Pleckgate, Rishton, Wilpshire and Whalley.
In November 2014, Newsquest North West ceased publication of free weekly the Burnley Citizen, replacing it with a free edition of the Burnley Telegraph.
The launch of The Post comes a fortnight after Preston-based daily the Lancashire Evening Post, owned by Johnson Press, announced it would be rebranding as The Lancashire Post this month.
Press Gazette reported last month that 46 local and regional newspapers have closed since the beginning of 2015, with a net loss of 17 papers once new launches were taken into account.
The total number of journalists working on local newspapers is thought to have at least halved since 2005.
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