The New Day: Trinity Mirror launches new UK daily as profits drop on print challenges

Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror launched a new national daily The New Day on Monday (29 February), despite a drop in profits and expectations of a tough 2016.

Trinity Mirror, the publisher behind left-wing tabloid The Daily Mirror, said it had high hopes for the new mid-market 'optimistic' newspaper The New Day. The first copy of the daily was given away for free on its launch day – it will then sell at 50p per copy. The publication is the first new national daily in the UK since the launch of The Independent's i Newspaper in 2010.

Former Mirror weekend editor Alison Phillips was appointed editor-in-chief of the turquoise newspaper. The New Day's first, magazine-like front page was dedicated to an exclusive story on infant carers.

"Because we've started from scratch, we've thrown out all the previous thinking on how a newspaper should be structured and started with a blank piece of paper," Phillips said. "The idea is that this paper should give you in 40 pages everything on any given day in a 30-minute read, without being bombarded with content you don't need."

However, The i Newspaper, which has a similar model to The New Day and was launched in 2010, has been a big success. The launch of The New Day also comes as The Independent will terminate its print operations, with its last edition published on 26 March and the last edition of the Independent On Sunday on 20 March.

The New Day will draw basic news copy from The Mirror and The Sunday Mirror as well as Press Association content. As less reporters are required, the publication has a team of 26 editorial staff. Both Phillips and executive editor Barry Rabbetts have shared pictures of what seems to be a majority female editorial team.

Trinity Mirror

The company that launched The New Day, Trinity Mirror, reported that pre-tax profit dropped 17.6% to £67.2m in 2016. Although the publisher is confident about the new daily, its revenue fell 7% to £592.7m because of the 'challenging' print environment.

"Whilst we expect print markets to remain difficult in 2016, the continued implementation of our strategy gives the board confidence in our performance for the year ahead," chief executive Simon Fox said in a statement.