Decades after The Sun was transformed from the orange-mastheaded Leftie UK broadsheet to Rupert Murdoch’s right-leaning tabloid, a new socialist paper with a yellow top is rising.

As the print edition of The Canary website of course, it had to be yellow.

An opening gambit has been to distribute copies to 6,500 newsagents, to retail at GBP£1.20 (A$2.26), the same as The Sun, but rather more than the GBP£6.99/month at which digital access to the News UK tabloid is offered. The print order is set to increase next month, by then amounting to 25,000 copies of a 32-page edition, across 8,000 newsagents.

All of this activity is reportedly a response to the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform party ahead of the forthcoming 2029 general election. It also follows the dissolution of a cooperative created when staff “overthrew” management in 2022, and an injection of cash by Cecil Hetherington, who owns a used cars website and is chair of a property platform. He is also a major shareholder in The Canary through Ulidia Investments, with a reported 25-50 per cent of the equity.

In an interview with UK trade magazine Press Gazette, director and chief executive Steve Topple said the aim was to deliver a different perspective to what he calls corporate media – meaning papers such as the Mirror, Sun and Mail – while doing “what the Mirror and the Guardian, for example, should be doing”.

Content will be a mix of original and website coverage of politics and human rights, with guest writers, TV, sports and fashion, “plus puzzles and horoscopes”.

Increased social media activity, a website that now attracts half a million monthly visits, and a relaunched YouTube presence are also part of the programme.

So far, three extra staff have been have been hired to produce extra content for the paper, with the prospect of growing to “a fully-fledged newspaper operation” if things go well in what is essentially a declining print market. Ambitions are for a daily sale of 100,000 copies.

Like the website, the paper will also take advertising, perhaps contributing a fifth of revenue, with the balance coming from contributions. There’s mention of an older demographic, and of positioning in the middle of current titles. Of similarities to the Morning Star, but like its frequently complained-of namesake, also “shouty” and “swears a bit”.

The UK’s first national print launch since the then Trinity Mirror’s 2016 New Day launch – which lasted a couple of months – it will be interesting to watch.

Peter Coleman

Pictured: The launch edition, from the paper’s Facebook site