Independent appoints Experience

The Independent has appointed communications planning agency Experience to help the newspaper’s commercial team identify new business opportunities.

Experience was set up in February by former Mediaedge:CIA managing director James Whitmore, former Zenith Optimedia managing director Greg Turzynski, and David Reid, a former Mediaedge:CIA strategist.

The Independent has boosted its circulation since launching its compact “tabloid” edition alongside the broadsheet in September last year. It phased out the broadsheet edition last month.

The agency will work with The Independent commercial director Lawrie Procter to develop a business strategy based on the newspaper’s new publishing model.

The Independent has just reported an average net circulation for May of 261,009, up 0.29 per cent on April (Audit Bureau of Circulations). For the six-month period from December 2003 to May average net circulation is up 13.95 per cent on the same period in the previous year to 253,577.

The newspaper’s media buying and planning is handled by Media Planning Group and advertising by Walsh Trott Chick Smith.

The Times also launched a compact edition, but is maintaining a dual format for now.