Former crime reporter for the Sunderland Echo Andrea Thurlbeck has teamed up with her journalist husband Andy Barker to launch a new bi-monthly lifestyle magazine for Sunderland called R&R.
The magazine has a print run of 10,000 delivered door to door across the city and the website has gone live today. The pair are publishing the new title under the umbrella of their PR company, Results Network.
Thurlbeck said: ‘R&R is an aspirational magazine that is Sunderland-centric – a quality magazine written in Sunderland, about Sunderland and for Sunderland people. In the run up to the launch of R&R, it became evident that both readers and advertisers were hungry for a magazine that they could call their own.
‘We believe we have an exciting product with a different where the magazine content genuinely dovetails into the online version, which will be updated on a rolling basis to keep readers informed.”
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Commercial editor Barker said: “We attracted advertisers to R&R on a concept which they fully supported from the off.”
The first edition includes an interview with Sunderland-born former News of the World news editor Neville Thurlbeckl, Andrea’s brother.
He reveals how he helped send Jeffrey Archer to prison and exposed David Beckham’s extra-marital off-pitch exploits. And he also talks about his time as agent 251 of NCIS (National Criminal Intelligence Service).
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Andrea said: ‘It’s the goal of every publication to launch on a cracking exclusive and thanks to family ties we have one. This is also a great opportunity for Neville to tell part of his story to in his home city.”
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