Digital Publishing
2 mins read

Archant – a prime example of ‘pop-up publishing’

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Media businesses scan the horizons like hawks for any opportunity to build a new audience. Recent endeavours in the UK suggest that you can’t do that around a specific location or even a particular demographic. Seven months in to a lifespan that began with a four issue trial period, Archant’s The New European is demonstrating that is is possible to build a new audience around a social issue.

The print newspaper, which is strident and forceful in its defence of Britain’s membership of the EU, is a prime example of the kind of ‘pop-up publishing’ that has been enjoying a moment in the sun. Traditionally the preserve of niche magazines, both The New European and its pro-Scottish-Independence counterpart The National are examples of savvy publishers recognising the opportunity to launch new print newspapers.

Matt Kelly, the chief content officer for Archant and editor for The New European, explains why it was vital the publication launched in the medium often derisorily referred to as ‘dead tree’:

“We could easily have launched a website or done it as a Facebook page; if we’d done that you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation now because no-one would have noticed.

“The reason I think print was important for The New European was that people, journalists, were intrigued, interested and wanted to write for it because it was a newspaper. Secondly, there’s a propensity for pay for stuff in print that there just isn’t online. The only revenue model we’ve got really is that cover price. The last one and genuinely the most important is that a newspaper can be a form of visible anger.”

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