Telegraph plans Sunday surprise

The Sunday Telegraph is planning a four-colour, heat-set, A3 review section to allow it to compete for colour advertising.

A dummy section was produced on the newspaper’s presses last Sunday and has been presented to agencies. It is understood to be going into focus group research with a view to launching in the late spring or early summer.

The Telegraph hopes to lure advertisers away from A3 sections in rival papers. Agencies believe the dummy’s editorial targets midmarket newspapers, such as the Daily Mail’s Weekend section, rather than broadsheets.

The Telegraph marketing director David Pugh denies a launch is imminent. “It is only one of a number of projects that we’re looking at to build up the paper,” he says.

The Saturday Telegraph was relaunched under Emma Soames in September with a view to attracting colour advertising aimed at women. However, it continued to take direct response ads which tend to alienate big brand advertisers.

Greg Grimmer, head of national press buying at CIA Medianetwork, says: “Everyone is moving away from magazines and into reviews; The Telegraph is losing out on a lot of money.”