The Lead has published its first local print edition with a new local newspaper for Blackpool going through 10,000 letterboxes in the town.
With hard-hitting features from The Blackpool Lead’s email newsletter exploring the history and importance of Grange Park, campaigning to fix a mouldy home and going inside one of the town’s warm hubs the print edition brings The Lead’s content from inbox to living room.
The newspaper contains two sections - the majority of the newspaper is given over to local news, features and opinion - with the back half of the newspaper containing the best of The Lead’s national content including long-form features and opinion. You can see the print edition here.
Lead Editor (North), Ed Walker, said: “We’ve had a great response to the launch of The Blackpool Lead and this paper, packing in the best of our weekly email newsletter, dives headlong into what’s being faced in the town. Through the writing of Antonia Charlesworth Stack who anchors our Blackpool newsletter each week and features throughout this edition of the paper it’s positioned as a read you can revisit too with a range of writers and topics explored.”
Three further print editions of The Lead will follow in April in Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent and Teesside to supplement the email newsletters which are already being delivered to hundreds of subscribers each week in these towns and cities.
In total, The Lead plans to print 200,000 newspapers during 2024 across 10 towns and cities in the North of England, with two print editions of each newspaper aimed for 2024. The aim of the printed edition is to build a direct connection with readers in each town and to drive subscriptions to the weekly newsletter in each town, and in turn, the national newsletter which has broken through 50,000 subscriptions.
Since launching its Northern expansion in January this year, The Lead has seen its digital audience increase by 44 per cent in Q1 2024 versus Q4 in 2023.
You can see the previous newsletter we sent to our subscribers here
Picture by: Will Ritchie Photography
The Blackpool Lead is now on Substack.
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