This week marks a year since the Chronicle & Echo relaunched...and looking back at 12 months of headlines makes for fascinating reading.
There’s no doubt that it was a controversial announcement and the reasons behind the decision have been debated many times before.
Now, a year on, it is time to reflect and to look forward to the future.
When the Chron was relaunched we promised more exclusive stories, more in depth coverage and an increased emphasis on our digital platforms.
Looking at the paper first, when the Chron relaunched it was a weighty product, regularly coming in over 200 pages. We have maintained that through the year. Last week’s paper was 240 pages...the most our presses allow us to print.
One criticism we have had is that the paper is too big. It is a sizeable beast...but there are seven days to read it!
Sales have performed well. We settled at around 20-25 per cent up on the sale before relaunch. From a commercial point of view, an advertiser featuring in the relaunched Chron will reach more people than before.
The front pages speak for themselves with regards to exclusive stories. More than half are stories you will not have read elsewhere. Many of the others are developed with new angles for our readers.
We still set the news agenda. The crisis facing the county’s child protection service was first revealed by the Chron, weeks before an official announcement.
Sport is a massive part of what we do here. In May alone, our sports and photographic teams have produced more than 240 pages of coverage to mark the play-off finals for Cobblers and Saints. A tremendous achievement and a lot of hard work.
And what of our digital platforms? Our website is going from strength to strength. We average between 60,000 and 70,000 people coming to our site every week. We have 16,300 people following us on Twitter and nearly 14,000 likes on Facebook. The website has more than 200 stories uploaded every week, many as website exclusives.
As ever, the Chron is your paper, whatever platform you read us on. Let us know your views emailing the address below. And, finally, I’d like to take this opportunity of thanking all those who have supported us and look forward to a positive future.