Mirror to lure new readers with redesign

Mirror Group has redesigned the Daily Mirror in the first stage of a 16m strategy to make the newspaper appeal to younger and female readers.

The redesign includes dropping “Daily” from the title, using more US-style picture-only front pages, expanding its women’s pages to a daily section, and introducing regionalised news and weather.

The revamp also includes a cartoon-strip Essex single mother, Mandy Capp, daughter of the long-running Andy Capp.

The 16m investment includes an extra eight news pages a day and an increased budget for marketing, promotions and advertising.

Mirror managing director Roger Eastoe claims the newspaper will rethink its use of promotional games, supported by TV advertising, and is developing a new strategy. Ads aired at the weekend included a Mirror-branded space hopper expected to appear in all subsequent ads.

The group denies that the dropping of “Daily” implies a move to a seven-day newspaper operation.

The newspaper’s ageing readership results in an estimated 30,000 of its readers dying every year. The redesign is also intended to help sales in the South, where the title is outsold by The Sun by 1 million copies a day.