Early boost for newsstand as The New Day dawns

Trinity Mirror’s new title The New Day was launched on February 29, with two million free copies distributed through retailers across the UK.

The weekday newspaper, which aims to bring younger readers back to print, will cost 25p until March 14, when the price will rise to 50p.

The publisher, which is marketing the title as “upbeat and optimistic” and “free of political bias”, is targeting sales of 200,000 copies a day. Retailers will receive a margin of 11.6p per copy, creating a £6m profit opportunity for the channel.

Many retailers sold out of the new title on launch day but there were mixed views about the newspaper’s future at full price.

Graham Hales of Locks Newsagency in Portsmouth told Retail Express on the second day of sale: “We gave away all of the 60 copies we received when it was free but we have only sold two of the 35 copies we have so far today.

“I think people were drawn to it out of interest, but it remains to be seen if they’ll be happy to pay for it when it goes up to 50p.

“It’s definitely drawing more people to the newsstand to have a look and we have seen an increase in sales in the other tabloids in the last two days.”

Nayan Amin of Best One in Dunstable added: “After all of the hype and promotion, we were only sent nine copies, which is ridiculous when we allocated it a prominent position in the store and have a high footfall. On the second day we only got seven copies.”