THE Kent Messenger Group is again daring to be different and thinking big in its approach to publishing.

On Friday, September 7, the KM Group is combining the strength of its established market leader in Kent, the Kent Messenger, with the county’s only evening paper, Medway Today to create a new publication, the Medway Messenger.

The Medway Messenger, published in two editions, morning and afternoon, will replace the existing Medway Towns edition of the Kent Messenger and the Friday edition of Medway Today.

It means a bigger, sectionalised paper of up to 220 pages devoted to the Medway towns of Gillingham, Chatham and Rochester, made available through retail outlets as well as an extensive home delivery operation.

KM managing director David Lewis said: “We wanted to combine the strength of our two titles in Medway to give our readers and advertisers the best possible newspaper.

“Our launch marketing campaign for the new publication is based on the fact that it is big and it will be. Medway Today which is now anything up to 96 pages on a Friday will be replaced with our new Medway Messenger which we expect to be up to 220 pages.

“It means our readers will have a paper that will last all weekend and our advertisers will get all the benefits that a longer shelf life and greater pagination bring.

“Combining the Kent Messenger and Medway Today will also mean that the KM’s circulation should rise, making the KM the best-selling weekly paper in Britain, an even better proposition for our advertisers.”

The new paper will be edited by Medway Today editor Bob Dimond. He said: “This new paper means that we can offer more to our readers, more Medway news, more Medway features and, vital for the weekend, more Medway sport.”

KM associate editorial director Simon Irwin said: “Our readers deserve the biggest and the best and the new Medway Messenger will be just that.”

“We are taking on four more journalists to deal with all the extra stories that our new bigger, better, paper will carry.

“We showed our commitment to the people of Medway when we changed the name of our evening paper from Kent Today to Medway Today. Now we are giving them the weekend paper they deserve.”

KM associate advertising director Simon Clubley said: “We aim to provide the best possible service for our advertisers and this bigger, better paper will mean we are doing just that.”