Crain's Manchester Business, which launches on Monday 17 December, has produced a 24 page dummy which will be distributed to over 3,000 potential advertisers and decision makers starting this week.
The dummy issue has been put together in Manchester working to a design template created and overseen by a Crain's team in Chicago.
Publisher Arthur Porter told How-Do that anticipation is clearly building and all the feedback to date has been extremely positive.
Agencies in Manchester and London are the title’s prime sales target market pre launch but Porter said agencies across the North from Liverpool to Preston and Leeds are also expressing keen interest.
A rate card has been fixed which actively encourages frequent advertisers. The display rate for such advertisers could work out at around £27 per scc said Porter.
Porter also told How-Do there is considerable interest in the proposed recruitment section which he said will offer ‘real value’ when compared with the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and other ‘quality’ nationals.
Porter said some pundits had described the launch date of 17 December as ‘crazy’ but he said the date had been chosen deliberately as it will offer an extended period of downtime for business folk to read and digest the new publication at their leisure.
Two further editions are planned for January before the title goes weekly in February.
The forecast print run is 20,000 copies of which around 3,000 are expected to be bought through newsstand and office delivery sales with the balance of 17,000 going out through controlled circulation to business people in the Greater Manchester area.
The website - www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk – will offer daily news updates and readers will be encouraged to sign up for email alerts.
Crain’s claim the publication will be the first city business weekly of its kind in Western Europe. The title is modelled on the business weekly publications which exist in most sizeable US cities. Crain’s itself publishes four city business titles: New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. Crain’s also publishes Ad Age, the US equivalent of Campaign magazine in the UK.
The paper’s editor Steve Brauner said he has been “Overwhelmed by the response from the business community.
"There is real excitement. People can't wait to see what kind of publication we are going to produce. We believe we will fill a gap in the market by bringing people information they can't get elsewhere. Working on the prototype issue has shown that there is a lot of scope to do this."
Brauner was previously editor of the North Western Evening Mail and is a previous business editor of the Daily Post and editor of North West Insider.
A number of editorial and sales staff have already signed up to join the new title.
Brauner
Simon Binns, previously editor of InterGaming magazine and 3 Mobile's Gamble Daily portal, has joined as senior business reporter specialising in commercial property and regeneration. Angela Tattersall, previously research fellow at the University of Salford Business School, has joined as research director. She will be responsible for compiling business lists (for which Crain’s is particularly well known in the States) and other data relating to Greater Manchester’s economy.
Shawn Selby, currently on the staff of Crain's Detroit Business, will join as Business Lives editor in November.
On the advertising sales side, Kathryn Toledano has joined as display advertising consultant and John Faulkner as a recruitment advertising consultant.
Porter said other editorial and sales positions will be made in the coming weeks.
UK publishers are already demonstrating their willingness to engage and defend their territory. Trinity Mirror, which owns the monthly business title Scottish Insider, has just launched a new free weekly business paper which also has a 20,000 distribution figure.
Industry observers are expecting the MEN, North West Insider, EN and others to respond but none was willing to state its intentions at this stage.
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