The North West Enquirer - How did they do

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The North West Enquirer

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The North West Enquirer was a short-lived weekly regional tabloid newspaper covering the North West region of England. Its circulation area encompassed the counties and areas of Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, as well as parts of Stoke-on-Trent and North Wales. Its first edition was published on April 27, 2006 and it ran for twenty-one issues, the final edition being published on September 14.

The Enquirer was a bold attempt to create a newspaper which had more of a focus on quality writing and analysis than the main local dailies such as the Manchester Evening News but with a more regional outlook than the national press could offer. The paper was aimed at the AB demographic group, high earners with large amounts of disposable income. While many local newspapers satisfied themselves with more populist human-interest stories, the Enquirer contained a large amount of arts and political coverage, with weekly columns exploring the culture of the region from names including Flic Everett and Anthony H Wilson. News coverage was of an investigative, in-depth style.

However, the paper quickly got into difficulties, falling short of a sales target of 15,000 in its first four months and laying off several journalists in August. The company attempted to re-finance, but a change in the conditions of a £200,000 funding package led to the Enquirer being placed into administration on September 20, one day before it was due to publish its twenty-second issue. Twenty-six redundancies where made, with the company unable to pay staff for the month of September, leaving many financially unsettled. The following day, this message was placed on the North West Enquirer's web site by former editor Robert Waterhouse:

Very sadly, after just 21 issues, we have been forced to suspend publication of The Enquirer because the funding package we were negotiating with regional venture capital funds fell apart at the last moment. The company is now in administration. There may yet be a rescue bid. Let’s just hope something transpires.

As editor, I’d like to thank readers for your very generous response to our website. We know that The Enquirer is well read around the world, and the number of hits was growing fast week by week. Thank you again.

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Comments (11)

1 By David Atkinson, on 30-03-2007 12:08
I never did get paid. Still waiting for the cheque ...

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2 By Roy Newey, on 30-03-2007 12:29
Thanks for a great read whilst it lasted. Pioneering can be tough.

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3 By Adam Baldock-Apps, on 04-04-2007 17:14
Calm down Dave, worst things have happened!! its only money.

I liked the enquirer, great team, good with the potential to be great product. Just a shame it happened as it did.

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4 By Dan Hinden , on 17-04-2007 16:31
I love you guys............................

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5 By Mr X, on 17-04-2007 17:25
Oi -- I wrote that exact text on the Wikipedia. Stop it!

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6 By Andy King, on 17-04-2007 18:15
Actually, you can leave it up, but stick my name on it... ta?

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7 By Rumplestiltskin, on 24-04-2007 17:24
Does the North West exist?
Only in the minds of a few journalists and politicians. Oh, and the people behind this website.

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8 By Dan Hinden , on 24-04-2007 23:05
Oh well I guess the people at BBC and ITV in the North West also think it doesn't exist then, does earth exist??? Rumple??? The people beind this website have had other major North West successes and I'll always support their theories, nobody wins them all!!! Only the brave who endeavor and learn that feedback brings success will get on in this world, seems to me the only 'niche' you have is the one between your ears. Unless you can drum up a better business plan and impress all the former harworking colleagues at the North West Enquirer that you are far more successful, I'd suggest you carry on trying to spin gold from straw. Robin "Hinden" Hood.

I welcome any other names you wish to call me, paranoid prick, pontificating fart, top salesman etc etc bring it on!!!!!!

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9 By Rumplestiltskin, on 25-04-2007 13:21
My point is that the “North West” is entirely artificial. It exists only in the minds of journalists and politicians.

The very existence of BBC North West and ITV North West is down to the fact that a lot of people watch the same signal from Winter Hill. That’s about flawed transmitter planning in the sixties. It has nothing to do with reflecting a genuine community.

Winter Hill's signal stretches out to Barrow and down to Wrexham. What do these people in this vast area have in common? One thing only. They watch television from the same transmitter.

Nobody in the North West says: "I'm a Northwesterner." They do say "I'm a Lancastrian, a Mancunian, a Liverpudlian." They identify with much smaller areas.

There is, in short, no sense of community for the “North West”. I live in Manchester, about equidistant from Leeds and Liverpool. Am I supposed to be interested in Liverpool but not in Leeds? I’m not.

The North West Enquirer went the same way as the North West Times. Part of the reason for that is that the "North West" is a myth.

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10 By Dan, on 26-04-2007 11:24
In answer to your question, I see the problem with those living in The North West as having to cross paths through work, lifestyle and leisure, I think this was taken into account.

Firstly having spent a year commuting Liverpool to Manchester 7.47 am and 6.11pm both out/return journeys taking 45mins, I\'m left thinking crikey what can I read thats decent other than the metro, or listen to other than pod casts or intermitent radio due to tunnels, Monday to Wednesday workers are thinking about work and are more stressed.

Cue my next point, forget about what happened 60 years ago, although newspapers are on a decline compared to online, there are still 1.8 million or more AB readers in The North West, demographically they are likely to be a more senior category, more traditional, sod the blackberry and mobile telephony, they simply cannot deliver quality substantial news, Im bored using my phone\'s web browser, with a paper it takes me 0.01 seconds to turn a news page and the cost to read it doesn\'t escalate the more I use it. I\'m only 29 but pretty much hate most of the Techie hype going on in media, but with my lifestyle I DO NEED North West News on the move, if its sport I\'m Intersted, if its weather I want to know, business especially!!

The way things are online right now I find grossly elaborate and actually impractical not to mention time consuming, its all a big kudos, flash gits with the latest gadgets. Give me a paper any day. Having said that sites such as this one could set a standard in offering a more conservative approach, but please NO POP-UP\'s.

In terms of your interest, the paper was designed to move with the times and offer different people different topics, amalgamating enough on politics, sport and regional development for a diverse region, I know of a story whereby one chap reading the NW-ENQ was able to discuss stories with his brother, they live within the North West but 2 hrs apart, news items in that relevant issue covered both of their localities.

Take the L\'pool 2008 thing as a current agenda, I think you should be more interested in what\'s happening there, than Leeds, I do think there are more exciting developments taking place in the NW area as opposed to Yorkshire for example.

From an outsdiders point of you (I\'m Southern) I totally disagree with you, not to americanise and whats more bastardise our regional structure, you must have heard of The Midwest in the U.S.

The North West does exist, to say it doesn\'t, offends me, I did great business with people who understood and still do, my reasoning, a lot had great resonance and ROI with their desicion to use us, it was never going to be easy, that\'s why it needed strong minded people, as a quality Thursday read, you could take home, keep and use, it achieved to some \'nth (if not enough copies sold) plenty of shelf life, by contrast The Metro for its paper and metal waste, litters the streets buses and pavements. (I might like oneday to interview the poor bugger who has to pick them each day, see how many sacks he manages to fill, I\'d say half of the initiall newstand quantity).

I think you can be a \"North Westener\", i\'m from a North West part of London, totally different to a South Eastener, and yet I have always been intersted in news over there, shootings, sport, business (Docklands), for good resons. If I launched The South East England News, some may say I was mad, but that doesn\'t mean I\'m not going to achieve great financial gain and deliver to some if not all \"News\" thats\'s relevant to a certain populas.

Not all Mancs, Wirralians, pudlians or didsburyians are too yocal to see beyond the remit of their catchment area, some like to travel, meet friends, businesses, there is definately \"for some\" 10%?? a common thread of interest, the niche was there!!! and filled, some individuals involved ruined its chances. It went from strength to strength, outward finances from revenue were suprisingly on an upward spike towards the end of the inward investmemt that haemoraged staff pay and the cost of the final print run, but I do not believe those investing and accounting were shrewd or brave enough. I loved that place the best and most enjoyable working experience in my career.. It\'s tough at the top and I take my hat off to those brave enough to stick their necks on the line. Its onwards and upwards.

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11 By Rumplestiltskin, on 26-04-2007 13:36
I agree that Mancs, Liverpudlians etc are not yocal. They see beyond their cities and localities.
However, their gaze doesn't stop at the Pennines or at the Staffordshire border.
They buy national newspapers, not regional ones. But they also read local ones.

They watch regional television news. But less and less of it. When they were given a choice of Granada Reports or The Simpsons, a hell of a lot switched.

People where I work are more likely to travel in from Yorkshire to work in Manchester than Liverpool. There's as much community of interest between west Yorkshire and Manchester as Liverpool and Manchester.

It's in some (especially television) journalists' self-interest to believe that the North West exists. In fact, they brainwash themselves so completely that they go to extreme lengths.

It's no accident that the two campaigns for a North West Assembly were led by Felicity Goodey (BBC North West's former industrial correspondent and later political correspondent) and Tony Wilson ("Mr Granada").

They even kidded John Prescott about it.

Thanks to the good folk of the North East, who recognised that that region doesn't exist, the whole "pretend England is split into German-style Lander" campaign ground to a halt.

Shame the North West Enquirer, which I enjoyed by the way, believed the same sort of nonsense.

Incidentally, thanks for the instruction to find Liverpool more interesting than Leeds. I will try. But I'm far more likely to want to go east on the M62 than west. I'm not a Yorkshireman, by the way.

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