The North West Enquirer folds after last-minute funding fails to appear

The North West Enquirer – the weekly regional title set up in April has closed, after just 21 issues.
Funding was due to come through two weeks ago, but at the last minute one of the lenders changed the terms of its package, leading the other funders to reconsider. The company has now gone into administration.
Nick Jaspan, managing director of the paper, said that the situation was sad for all concerned. \"We had a funding package in place, but unfortunately they decided to reconsider the terms of their package,\" he told Adline. \"We had a very experienced commercial person who was going to be joining us and I was going to move into a more developmental role. I personally have lost £200,000.\"
The decision was taken on the 19th September to close the paper, and the paper’s 26 staff were told the office would close with immediate effect.
Editor Bob Waterhouse – who also launched the North West Times in 1988 – set up the paper with Jaspan, who he worked with at Newsco.
The paper’s last edition was the 14 September.
It is not known what Jaspan’s career intentions are, but he is understood to not be looking at another start-up.
The North West Enquirer went on sale in April priced at £1 an issue. Its reach spanned Manchester, the Peak and Lake districts, North Wales, the Isle of Man and parts of North Staffordshire and West Yorkshire. At launch, it had investment from 12 private backers and two equity funds; Northwest Equity and Northwest Seed funds.
As the paper closed, its circulation was sitting at an average of 12,000 a week, compared to its target of 15,000/20,000 a week.
In August, the paper had to make several senior redundancies and cut its freelance budget after investors demanded cuts.