Desmond to launch Sunday edition of 'Daily Star'

Richmond Desmond, the proprietor of Express Newspapers, is to launch a new Sunday edition of the Daily Star, the only one of his titles increasing its circulation.

The Daily Star, with a front page invariably adorned by a scantily clad woman, is aimed at young men and sells most of its copies in the north of England. It reported a 10 per cent year-on-year increase in its latest circulation figures.

The total sale of 705,867 is well below that of its fellow red-tops, The Sun and The Mirror, but under the editorship of Peter Hill it has been recording steady increases.

The new 80-page Sunday edition will be launched this spring. While senior insiders at Express Newspapers confirmed that Mr Desmond was going ahead with the launch, they said that a reported date for its first issue of 26 May was not yet definite.

Mr Desmond is taking a gamble in launching a new Sunday paper. The past six months have seen the Sunday red-tops lose 2.17 per cent of their circulation. But he is said to be setting a 700,000 circulation target for the new paper, which he wants to compete directly with the Sunday People, part of the Trinity Mirror stable.

It has not been decided whether the Sunday Star will be a seventh-day extension of the daily with the same staff, or whether it will have its own personnel and identity. No announcement has been made about who the editor will be.

The Daily Star, which was launched in 1978, had its most famous hour when it was successfully sued for libel by Jeffrey Archer over allegations about his involvement with a prostitute. The Star was handed a further bout of publicity last year when it emerged that Lord Archer had lied, and was sent to prison.