The New European

The New European is a British pan-European weekly political and cultural newspaper and website. Launched in July 2016 as a response to the United Kingdom's 2016 EU referendum, its readership is aimed at those who voted to remain within the European Union, with the newspaper's original tagline being "The New Pop-up Paper for the 48%".[1][2] Formerly owned by Archant, it was announced at the beginning of February 2021 that a consortium including founder Matt Kelly, media executive Mark Thompson and former Financial Times editor Lionel Barber had acquired the newspaper.[3]

For other publications, see European (disambiguation).

The New European
Front page of issue 154 (from mid-2019)
TypeWeekly newspaper and website
FormatCompact
PublisherThe New European Ltd
Editor-in-chiefMatt Kelly
EditorSteve Anglesey
Founded4 July 2016 (2016-07-04)
Political alignmentPro-Europeanism
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters22 Highbury Grove, London N5
CountryUnited Kingdom
Circulation20,000 print sales (UK)
ISSN2398-8762
Websitewww.theneweuropean.co.uk
Part of a series of articles on
Brexit

Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union

Glossary of terms
Background
2016 EU referendum
Campaigns
Leave campaigns
Remain campaigns
Outcome
Notice of withdrawal
Negotiations
Withdrawal agreement
Legislation
Impact
EU–UK relations
Relations with EU member states
Opposition
Calls for a second referendum
Timeline
Bloomberg speech Jan 2013
Referendum Bill blockedJan 2014
European Parliament election May 2014
2015 general election May 2015
Renegotiation begins Jun 2015
Referendum Act passed Dec 2015
Renegotiation concluded Feb 2016
Referendum held Jun 2016
David Cameron resigns as PM Jul 2016
Theresa May becomes PM Jul 2016
Article 50 judgement Jan 2017
Brexit plan presentedFeb 2017
Notification Act passed Mar 2017
Article 50 invoked Mar 2017
Repeal Bill plan presentedMar 2017
2017 general election Jun 2017
Brexit negotiations begin Jun 2017
Withdrawal Act passedJun 2018
Chequers plan presented Jul 2018
Withdrawal agreement plan presented July 2018
Withdrawal agreement released Nov 2018
Scottish Continuity Bill blockedDec 2018
Meaningful votes Jan–Mar 2019
Brexit delayed until 12 April Mar 2019
Cooper–Letwin Act passed Apr 2019
Brexit delayed until 31 October Apr 2019
European Parliament election May 2019
Theresa May resigns as PM Jul 2019
Boris Johnson becomes PM Jul 2019
Prorogation and annulment Aug–Sep 2019
Benn Act passed Sep 2019
Withdrawal agreement revised Oct 2019
Brexit delayed until 31 January Oct 2019
2019 general election Dec 2019
Agreement Act passed Jan 2020
UK leaves the European Union Jan 2020
Implementation period begins Jan 2020
UK–EU trade deal agreed Dec 2020
Future Relationship Act passed Dec 2020
Scottish Continuity Act passed Dec 2020
Implementation period ends Dec 2020
New EU–UK relationship begins Jan 2021
UK–EU trade deal ratified Apr 2021
Windsor Framework released Feb 2023
Windsor framework adopted Mar 2023

Newspaper

It was founded and edited for the first three-and-a-half years of its existence by Matt Kelly, who formerly worked at the Daily Mirror[4] and Local World. Kelly was partially inspired in his idea by The European, a British weekly newspaper that was published from 1990 to 1998; hence the name The New European.

The newspaper's owners stated that The New European was to have an initial lifespan of just four issues, beyond which publication would be reviewed on a week-by-week basis. By the eve of the third edition the paper revealed it had broken even and sold around 40,000 copies.[5] It continued to publish beyond its fourth issue, and claimed in July 2019 that it continued to be profitable.[6] The circulation was reported in November 2016 to be "about 25,000"[7] and, in February 2017, to be 20,000.[8]

Alastair Campbell became the newspaper's editor-at-large in March 2017, months after it won the serial rights to the fifth volume of his diaries about the Blair government,[9][10] which it serialised over three weeks.

The paper announced it was changing from Berliner to Compact format in July 2017.[11]

In May 2018 the newspaper devoted a whole issue to feminism, rebranding as The New Feminist, edited by Caroline Criado-Perez with contributions from Helen Lewis, Samira Ahmed, and Konnie Huq.[12] On 29 March 2019, the date the UK was expected to leave the European Union under Theresa May, the newspaper devoted a whole edition to the writings of Will Self. The 25,000-word essay was illustrated by Martin Rowson.[13]

In September 2019, Kelly announced he was promoting Jasper Copping, previously the paper's deputy editor, to the role of editor, while taking the role of publisher himself.[14]

In February 2021 it was announced that a consortium including founder Matt Kelly, media executive Mark Thompson and former Financial Times editor Lionel Barber had bought the newspaper from Archant.[3]

In July 2022, The New European Ltd completed a co-ownership scheme, raising more than £1m from more than 2,000 individual investors, who collectively own 16.7% of the company, valuing TNE Ltd at more than £6m ($7.2m).[15]

Digital

The paper announced in November 2016 that it was moving to become more digitally focused. In May 2017 it launched its first podcast which attracted between 10,000 and 15,000 listeners each week by 2019.[16] The website, which combines contributions from the newspaper with unique online-only content, claimed to attract more than a million page views a month in 2017.[17]

According to Press Gazette, as of September 2022, The New European website received just under 200,000 views a month, ranking it the 7th most popular political news brand in the UK.[18]

Reception

Awards

In March 2017, the Society of Editors awarded The New European the Chairman's award.[19] In May 2017, The New European won prizes at the annual British Media Awards for Launch of the Year (Gold), Print Product of the Year (Silver) Content Team of the Year (Bronze) and Pioneer of the Year for the editor Matt Kelly.[20][21] In July 2017, the Archant Group won the Professional Publishers Association Chairman's award, with the launch of The New European cited.[22]

Criticism

In July 2016, just a week after the launch of the paper, Vice News described The New European as a newspaper for the "sore loser" that is "not united by a love for Europe, but rather a disdain for the 52%".[23]

In April 2017, The New European sent out a press release of its cover story titled "Skegness: The seaside town that Brexit could close down". In the press release it also mentioned that the story was "unlikely to go down well, locally, and there is an opportunity to stir up some controversy locally". The New European had claimed the press release had been sent out in error and issued another copy without the commentary. The Spectator ran a piece titled "The New European reveals its plan to troll Skegness". It said: "Although the pro-EU paper claims it is an advocate for unity and tolerance, it seems they hold no qualms about stirring up division in UK towns".[24] The cartoon image on the cover of that issue was a play on The Jolly Fisherman, originally commissioned by the Great Northern Railway, and received heavy criticism. The i reported that the people of Skegness were "hurt and offended" that the town's mascot, the Jolly Fisherman, had been "exploited" on the front cover of The New European magazine.[25] In response to the feature, Member of Parliament for Boston and Skegness Matt Warman said that "Those who seek to make the European case anew would do better to try to understand than to insult either individuals or whole towns."[26]

References
  1. Worley, Will (3 July 2016). "UK's first ever 'pop up newspaper' to be launched in response to Brexit". The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 July 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  2. Greenslade, Roy (4 July 2016). "Archant launches pop-up paper to serve people who voted remain". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  3. "Under new ownership". The New European. 1 February 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  4. Sommers, Jack (7 April 2017). "This Brash, Pro-EU Newspaper Is Borrowing From The Daily Mail's Playbook". HuffPost UK. Archived from the original on 16 June 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  5. Sweney, Mark (21 July 2016). "Anti-Brexit paper the New European outsells the New Day and makes profit". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  6. Walker, James (12 July 2019). "New European celebrates third birthday with letter dubbing doubters 'foolish' and 'treacherous'". Press Gazette. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  7. Sweney, Mark (4 November 2016) "The New European publisher puts up to 60 roles at risk in digital move" Archived 9 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine. The Guardian.
  8. Lichterman, Joseph (2 February 2017) "This anti-Brexit newspaper first launched as a pop-up, but it's doing well enough to continue indefinitely" Archived 9 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Nieman Lab.
  9. "Alastair Campbell joins The New European as editor-at-large". The New European. 24 March 2017. Archived from the original on 14 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  10. Greenslade, Roy (30 September 2016). "The New European wins serial rights to Alastair Campbell's new book". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  11. Hammett, Ellen (16 June 2017). "The New European goes tabloid". Mediatel Newsline. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  12. Tobitt, Charlotte (21 May 2018). "The New European to showcase women's voices as it becomes The New Feminist for one edition". Press Gazette. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  13. Burrell, Ian (28 March 2019). "Brexit or no Brexit, The New European will remain in print – but not as we know it". The Drum. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  14. Read, Jonathon (3 October 2019). "The New European appoints new editor". The New European. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  15. Maher, Bron (14 July 2022). "New European raises £1m inviting readers to invest in the paper". Press Gazette.
  16. Kelly, Matt (11 July 2019). "The longest four weeks in publishing history". The New European. Norwich, UK: Archant. p. 3. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  17. Lichterman, Joseph (22 February 2017). "This anti-Brexit newspaper first launched as a pop-up, but it's doing well enough to continue indefinitely". Nieman Lab. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  18. "Ranked: Most popular politics news websites in the UK". Press Gazette. 1 September 2022. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  19. "Winners Announced For National Press Awards". News Media Association UK. 15 March 2017. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  20. "2017 Winners". British Media Awards 2017. Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  21. "British Media Awards 2017 – winners announced". In Publishing. 5 May 2017. Archived from the original on 26 July 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  22. Sharmon, David. (3 July 2017). "'Modern and agile approach' secures national award win for publisher". Hold The Front Page. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  23. Harrison, Angus (11 July 2016). "'The New European' Is Britain's Sore Loser Newspaper". Vice. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  24. Steerpike (12 April 2017). "The New European reveals its plan to troll Skegness". The Spectator. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  25. Sandhu, Serina (12 April 2017). "Skegness 'hurt and offended' over Jolly Fisherman's 'exploitation' on New European cover". i. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  26. "My response to The New European". Matt Warman. 20 April 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
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