Launching a new daily newspaper in 2016 is a brave and risky move – but that’s what Trinity Mirror did last week when it brought The New Day to the market.

Social media was awash with pictures and posts showing independent retailers getting behind the launch on February 29. Shops were adorned with PoS and staff were briefed to hand out copies of the initially-free title and talk to customers about it.

While there’s some scepticism in the industry about whether The New Day will be a success, particularly when its cover price rises to 50p from 25p next week, it has succeeded in rattling the cage of the ‘i’, leading its publisher to send out a letter to retailers to persuade them not to let the paper take over its spot on the newsstand.

And, more importantly, it has generated excitement.

As Greg Deacon, independents sales manager at News UK, said to us last week, it’s “great that people are talking about the news category”.

Not only are people talking about news, but they’re making a point of visiting the newsstand.

Retailer Graham Hales backs this up in our lead story on this page. He says the title had not only drawn people to the newsstand, but helped grow sales of his other tabloids. Perhaps all of the publicity has led to many people discovering newspapers again. 

Like every category in your store, the news category needs excitement to drive shopper awareness and be profitable. Let’s hope the excitement continues.