By Jean Morgan
It took just two weeks and two days for a new team to completely revamp the Advertiser series in east Yorkshire.
The new-look series hit the streets in Hull and the East Riding last week after the relaunch.
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Alex Leys, former design editor of the Hull Daily Mail, was appointed editor of the Advertiser series on 6 January with the task of totally changing the content and design of the five titles and putting together the new team.
The transformation has been so marked that the titles are now running with the slogan: “The only thing the same is the name!”
The Advertisers are being distributed free to 165,000 homes in the area and are also available for sale at 30p in 170 retail outlets.
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Leys worked to a new brief set by Hull Daily Mail publications editor John Meehan. It identified the need for clear differentiation between the content and approach of the company’s evening titles, the Hull Daily Mail and East Riding Mail, and their sister weeklies.
While the daily titles offer comprehensive coverage of local news and issues, the Advertisers now offer an easily digestible, fun read.
Leys said: “It’s been a tough challenge to achieve all our goals in such a short space of time, but with the support of a great young team of journalists, we have managed to exceed our own high expectations.
“We have already had a terrific response to the upbeat approach we’ve taken.”
Meehan stressed that the Advertisers could not be dismissed as free sheets.
“They are very credible newspapers with 10 pages of local news and three pages of sport, specifically relevant to each edition area, as well as a features section called Life. They offer an excellent service and fully justify a 30p cover price.”
The East Riding will be well served by weeklies. A broadsheet weekly, the East Riding Gazette, from the independent East Riding Gazette company, launched this month (Press Gazette, 17 January).
Jean Morgan
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