publishing an overseas edition of an internationally known newspaper is a common practice.
And one of the newest titles to join in is the Weekly Telegraph, a compilation of news and features from Britain’s Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.
Colin Grimshaw, publisher of the Weekly Telegraph, says Canada is a ‘very attractive market’ for the newspaper, which seeks the same readership enjoyed by The Economist and the Manchester Guardian, two British publications with a wide following here.
More analysis
Grimshaw says the Weekly Telegraph will provide more analysis, more detail and more commentary than either Canadian or British dailies can provide.
The 64-page Weekly Telegraph made its first Canadian newsstand appearance Oct. 20. The initial print run was 45,000.
It is being sold in more than 7,000 outlets across the country including WHSmith, Lichtman’s, Mac’s Milk convenience stores and the Safeway supermarket chain.
British-Canadians
In a brief interview with Strategy, Grimshaw says the Weekly Telegraph also seeks readers among British immigrants in Canada and among those six million Canadians of British origin.
Grimshaw says a Weekly Telegraph has been available to Canadians by airmail subscription from London since July 1991, but adds it was not aggressively marketed.
Newsstand sales of the Weekly Telegraph were first introduced in Australia and New Zealand, and the paper’s owner, Vancouver-based Hollinger, has plans to launch newsstand sales in the u.s.
Grimshaw says the Weekly Telegraph being sold in Canada is edited in London and printed in Canada.
The Canadian edition of the International Express weekly is produced the same way. The Manchester Guardian international edition is printed in the u.s.
Grimshaw says he does not see the left-leaning, intellectually inclined Manchester Guardian nor the populist, right-wing International Express weekly as direct competition to the Weekly Telegraph.
Different politics
He says the politics of the Weekly Telegraph and the Manchester Guardian are different, and the International Express is a ‘downmarket’ paper. All three titles are tabloids.
The right-of-centre Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph are among the most successful of Britain’s ‘quality’ newspapers.
The broadsheet daily began in 1855. Hollinger has held a controlling interest in The Telegraph Group since 1986.
Grimshaw says a radio, tv and newspaper ad campaign for the Weekly Telegraph got under way mid-October and will run for four weeks.
He says the creative is from London’s Euro-RSCG agency, with media buying by Toronto’s Media Buying Services.
He says Conrad Black, Hollinger chairman and chief executive officer, is also due back in Canada from London to help promote the paper.
The Weekly Telegraph is on sale every Wednesday in Ontario and Quebec, and on Thursdays in the rest of the country. It costs $2.50 a copy including gst.
