The ''North West Enquirer'' was a short-lived weekly regional tabloid newspaper covering the North West region of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Its circulation area encompassed the counties and areas of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wir ...

and

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...

, as well as parts of

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

and

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, ...

. Its first edition was published on 27 April 2006 and it ran for twenty-one issues, the final edition being published on 14 September. The ''Enquirer'' was an attempt to create a newspaper which had more of a focus on quality writing and analysis than the main local dailies such as the ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...

'' but with a more regional outlook than the national press could offer. The paper was aimed at the ''AB''

demographic Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...

group, high earners with large amounts of disposable income. While many local newspapers satisfied themselves with more populist human-interest stories, the ''Enquirer'' contained a large amount of arts and political coverage, with weekly columns exploring the culture of the region from names including Flic Everett and Anthony H Wilson. News coverage was of an investigative, in-depth style. However, the paper quickly got into difficulties, falling short of a sales target of 15,000 in its first four months and laying off several journalists in Augus

The company attempted to re-finance, but a change in the conditions of a £200,000 funding package led to the ''Enquirer'' being placed into administration on 20 September, one day before it was due to publish its twenty-second issu

Twenty-six redundancies were made, with the company unable to pay staff for the month of September, leaving many financially unsettled. The following day, this message was placed on the ''North West Enquirer''s web site by former editor Robert Waterhous

: ''Very sadly, after just 21 issues, we have been forced to suspend publication of The Enquirer because the funding package we were negotiating with regional venture capital funds fell apart at the last moment. The company is now in administration. There may yet be a rescue bid. Let’s just hope something transpires.'' : ''As editor, I’d like to thank readers for your very generous response to our website. We know that The Enquirer is well read around the world, and the number of hits was growing fast week by week. Thank you again.'' As of May 2007, the ''Enquirer''{{'s web site had been replaced with an ISP holding page explaining that the site was inactive.

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