The New European is considered by its publisher Archant to have had the fastest newspaper launch in UK history, having been turned around from concept to shelf in nine days.
It has consistently sold over 30,000 copies per issue, with its highest selling issue crossing the 40,000 barrier.
The pop-up weekly, which retails for £2, has received rave reviews from media commentators, in part for its attraction of a number of high calibre contributors, including Howard Jacobson, Alastair Campbell and Jonathan Freedland.
Archant chief marketing officer Will Hattam said: “We committed to four issues originally but it’s gone really well, better than expected. It was in profit on issue one, which is extraordinary, particularly of a product conceived and executed in nine days.”
Hattam said initially Archant did not believe it would ever cross the 30,000 mark in terms of sales per issue.
The New European was commissioned on Wednesday 29 June and the first issue was delivered to 17,000 newsagents across England the following Friday. Issue two extended to Wales, issue three to Scotland and Hattam said Archant is in talks with European retailers to have upcoming issues sold in mainland Europe.
Its run of approximately 150,000 is printed at the Guardian Print Centre (GPC) in Manchester. It is printed on GPC’s Manroland Colorman, on 40g newsprint paper in full colour and is 48 pages long.
GPC production manager Bob Carr said: “The New European has been a nice addition to our portfolio. Its production runs have all gone very well and it is good to be able to assist publishers with getting a new product on the marketplace.”
Hattam puts the success of The New European down to three factors, the first being its quality of content, the second being its marketing and distribution, even though it has an overall marketing budget of just £20,000, and the third being a general appetite for a pop-up product from the public.
“Half of the country thought it had been robbed and our view was that there was no voice for these people,” said Hattam.
“It’s not particularly political and we’re not here to lead a movement, just to reflect a mood. Every day, as the new normal simply became the normal, we realised we had to get this out as quickly as possible.”
The New European’s success comes off the back of the failure of Trinity Mirror’s national the New Day, which ceased printing in May after just two months on sale.
Hattam said: “Where we differ from the New Day is that we don’t have a long-term plan, a huge cost base or a massive marketing budget. So our risk in this initiative is very low and we have always given ourselves permission to get out of it if it doesn’t work.”
