New UK newspaper to close after just 9 weeks

Britain's newest daily newspaper 'The New Day' today announced that it will be shut down due to poor sales, just nine weeks after it was launched with much fanfare.
The newspaper was launched in February by the Trinity Mirror Group, publishers of 'Daily Mirror' and 'Sunday Mirror' newspapers, as the first "standalone daily nationalnewspaper" to be launched in the country in 30 years.
"Bad news, I'm afraid, but tomorrow's edition of 'The New Day' will be the last. We have tried everything we could but sadly we just haven't reached the sales figures we needed to make it work financially," said editor Alison Phillips.

"There clearly were many people who truly loved the idea of a different kind of newspaper which spoke to them. But the reality was we didn't have enough of them on a daily basis," she said.
The newspaper had hoped to sell about 200,000 copies a day, but sales are reported to have fallen to about 40,000.
The majority of the newspaper's 25 staff will lose their jobs, with the remainder being absorbed by the 'Mirror' newspaper.

The company said in a statement:"Although The New Day has received many supportive reviews and built a strong following on Facebook, the circulation for the title is below our expectations.

"As a result, we have decided to close the title on 6 May 2016. Whilst disappointing, the launch and subsequent closure have provided new insights into enhancing our newspapers and a number of these opportunities will be considered over time."
Two million copies were distributed free on launch day and then it cost 25p for the first two weeks, before rising to 50p.
At launch the company reported a 14.4 million pounds fall in annual pre-tax profit to 67.2 million pounds.
Its share price rose by more than 7 per cent on the news of the closure.
Amol Rajan, Indian-origin editor-at-large at the 'Independent' newspaper, said he felt sympathetic for the people who worked at the paper but it was the right decision to close.

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"The New Day' was not a news-led product - it was a features-led product. In that way it was unique but it was not a compelling proposition," he said.
It was the firstnewnational paper since the launch of 'i', a slimmed-down version of the 'Independent', went on sale in October 2010.
TrinityMirror said it is the first standalone title since the 'Independent's' own debut in 1986.
Simon Fox, chief executive ofTrinityMirror, had said at its launch: "Over a million people have stopped buying anewspaperin the past two years but we believe a large number of them can be tempted back with the right product.

"Revitalising print is a core part of our strategy in parallel with digital transformation and there doesn't have to be a choice between the two -newspaperscan live in the digital age if they have been designed to offer something different."
Thenewspaper, which launched as a "upbeat" and "politically neutral, had British Prime Minister David Cameron as their opening columnist with his pitch for Britain to vote to remain in the European Union (EU) in the June 23 referendum.
Its fate reflects the overall decline in the fortune of print publications around the world.