Fish4 venturists to launch major regional news portal

Regional news portal site This Is Britain goes live this week, acting as a gateway into a network of local newspaper-based Websites which claim a combined volume of page impressions of 20 million a month – well in excess of any national newspa

Regional news portal site This Is Britain (www.thisisbritain.com) goes live this week, acting as a gateway into a network of local newspaper-based Websites which claim a combined volume of page impressions of 20 million a month – well in excess of any national newspaper site.

Jonathan Turpin, chief executive of This Is Britain and sister classified ad venture Fish4 (www.fish4it. co.uk), says he is seeking to replicate the US model of metropolitan-based portal news services by selling in regional and local news content services to national UK portals.

“We have signed a deal with MSN which will make us their local channel partner, in a service we hope to have up and running by mid-November. We are also working on a number of other deals to make us the local content provider to a number of other portals and ISPs,” says Turpin.

Regional Independent Media and Bristol United Press have signed up as subscribers to the This Is Britain service and Fish4 online classified ad network.

Turpin says: “We have most major conurbations covered, and we are now on a drive to reach 90 per cent of the UK. The aim now is to fill in the remaining gaps in our coverage.”