Mail on Sunday relaunches next weekend

The Mail on Sunday will relaunch in a two-section format next weekend with an internet critic replacing its long-standing TV review.

As revealed by MediaGuardian.co.uk last month, the paper is being revamped with two new sections alongside its existing two magazines, Live and You.

The main paper will feature news, sport and the previously separate section, Financial Mail, with personal finance rebranded as "wealth management".

The second section, called Mail on Sunday 2, will be more features-heavy and will be colour coded and divided into reviews, health, property, travel, the critics and an expanded puzzle section called Brain Workout.

The paper describes Rob Waugh as "Britain's first internet critic", having previously appeared in its pages writing about the web, DVDs, gaming and new technology.

In a trail to readers yesterday, the paper said it would be the "first compact paper with full colour on every page".

The MoS is also selling itself as an easier-to-read proposition than some of its big-selling Sunday rivals such as the Sunday Times.

"It's very much the intention that the first section is a manageable newspaper, a maximum of 128 pages, that you read over breakfast. It's got everything you need in there," the paper's editor, Peter Wright, told the Independent today.

"In the second section, it is intended that you should read slightly at your leisure. Every copy is going to be stapled so it's going to be more durable than a straightforward newspaper."

"A brilliantly simple two-section, two magazine format which will make it easier to find your favourite subjects (and easier to share!)," adds the page two ad in yesterday's Mail on Sunday.

However, Jaci Stephen's TV review will not be part of the new package after the column was dropped by the paper.

Wright described her as a "brilliant TV reviewer" but said last month: "In a multichannel age I'm afraid I just don't think reviews have the appeal they had in the past."

The relaunch is the culmination of a series of changes to the Associated Newspapers title aimed at attracting a younger readership.

Night & Day magazine was converted into the male-oriented Live and featured with You magazine in an expensive cinema marketing campaign that had two tribes of warring men and women finding solace in the two magazines.

In July last year, the paper attracted worldwide attention when it was the first outlet to distribute the new Prince CD, Planet Earth.

John Plunkett
Guardian Unlimited,
Monday January 7 2008