Trinity Mirror group launches the first new paper in 30 years called The New Day

The Trinity Mirror newspaper group has confirmed it is to launch the first new standalone newspaper for 30 years - and said it will be an “optimistic” and “politically neutral” title.

The paper, to be called The New Day, will hit news stands next Monday.

The publisher said the newspaper “will cover important stories in a balanced way, without telling the reader what to think”, and stressed it will be a standalone paper and “not a sister title” to the Daily Mirror.

The move comes despite a sharp fall in newspaper sales as readers switch to online news.

The Independent and The Independent on Sunday newspapers are to cease producing print editions next month and go digital-only.

However, Trinity Mirror insists there is still an appetite for the printed word.

The New Day will run to 40 pages and be available free from more than 40,000 retailers on its first day, Monday February 29.

It will trial at 25p for two weeks and sell for 50p after that.

Alison Phillips, the Mirror’s weekend editor who will also edit The New Day, said the paper will be a radical departure from other titles by being concise, politically neutral, and optimistic.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Whilst we have continued to put newspapers out in a fairly similar way for 100 years, there has been a massive nuclear bomb gone off in the media world with the advent of the internet, and we have created a newspaper which reflects that and understands that.

“So, whilst now there is a breaking story and people have got news alerts on their phones all the time, what they quite often want is a ruthless edit of the day — this is what they need to know.

“Most people, and we have spoken to thousands of readers over the last year or so, they only want 30 minutes, they only have 30 minutes, everyone is time-poor nowadays.”

She said the paper will be packed full of comment and opinion from all sides of the political debate. However, unlike others, it will be politically neutral and will not have an editorial leader column.

The newspaper will have a presence on social media, but it will not have a website.