Liverpool Daily Post to go weekly and cut jobs

Liverpool's oldest daily newspaper is to stop publication after 156 years, changing to a weekly issue under a new name from January, with the loss of six journalists' jobs.

The replacement weekly paper will be issued every Thursday with a focus on business, sport, arts and politics.

The Liverpool Daily Post was first published in the city on 11 June, 1855, at the price of one penny per copy.

Sister paper The Liverpool Echo will continue to be published daily.

In the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, the Liverpool Daily Post had a circulation of 8,217 copies.

The title will retain an online presence.

The paper is part of the Trinity Mirror group which publishes about 160 regional newspapers as well as national titles the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror.

The company also announced that free weekly titles, the Bootle Times, Merseymart and Star, will be merged into two new community papers which will be inserted into the Liverpool Echo's Tuesday edition.

Liverpool Daily Post editor Mark Thomas said: ''We are lucky to be custodians of one of the great brands in journalism and we've been serving our city for 156 years.

"This change sets us up to serve it for the next 156 - in print and online and through whichever channels readers seek to receive it.

"Journalists are beginning work on dummy designs for the new product which has The Liverpool Post as a working title.

''There is clear evidence that a bumper Post once a week, full of high-quality news, views and analysis, will be better for readers and a more appealing vehicle for advertisers."

Trinity Mirror stopped printing the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo in the city in 2008 and moved the printing operation to Oldham. The editorial department remained in the city's Old Hall Street offices.

In November 2009 Trinity Mirror moved the production of its Midlands daily paper, the Birmingham Post, to a weekly edition.