Main content

New People website, the Independent relaunch, Sports on TV, the Mirror ruling

Trinity Mirror's Sue Douglas on the new People website, why the Independent is re-designing yet again, and what BT Sport and Sky have to play for in Champions League bidding.

The Sunday People, one of Britain's oldest Sunday newspapers, has finally developed an online presence. Under the stewardship of Trinity Mirror executive Sue Douglas, People.co.uk is being described as 'news without the boring bits'. Steve Hewlett asks Sue Douglas why she was so keen to take the helm of the digital offering, and discusses how she can turn a weekly newspaper into a 24 hour website.

Meanwhile, the Independent newspaper has had yet another re-design. It's the fifth one in as many years. The red masthead brought in by then editor Chris Blackhurst in 2011 will now run vertically down the front page. It's the brain child of new editor Amol Rajan who says he wants to capture the essence of the paper's first editions from 1986. As he describes it, the style is, 'classic with a twist'. But can reverting back to a vintage style recapture a lost audience? The paper has a circulation of just 70,000. Steve talks to Chris Blackhurst, who is now the Group Content Editor of The Independent, i, The Independent on Sunday and Evening Standard, about whether a re-design is really the answers to the papers problems.

Bidding is now underway for rights to cover Champions League football games. The question on analysts' lips is whether BT Sport will decide to go head to head against Sky Sports and try and win the right to cover these games. It comes as BT announces record broadband subscriber numbers, due in part to it offering it's sports channel free of charge. It's already paid 拢246m per season to broadcast 38 Premier League games, so will it seek to further challenge the dominance of Sky?

Producer: Katy Takatsuki.

Available now

30 minutes

Chapters

  • News without the boring bits: The launch of the People.co.uk

    With Sue Douglas, Publishing Director Sunday Brands, Trinity Mirror.

  • Why is the Independent re-designing its paper again?

    With Chris Blackhurst, Group Content Editor of the Independent.

  • Sky and BT : Bidding for championship league football rights

    With Claire Enders, Enders Analysis

  • High court ruling: alleged phone hacking at the Mirror Group

    Wtih Mark Lewis, media lawyer from Taylor Hampton

    Duration: 06:49

Broadcast

  • Wed 6 Nov 2013 16:30

Podcast