(Adds background, details)
By Kate Holton
LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - The first national newspaper tolaunch in Britain in 30 years is to close after just two months,its publisher Trinity Mirror said on Thursday, after itfailed to find readers in a print market decimated by the growthof the internet.
Launched to much fanfare on February 29, the cut price NewDay tabloid was designed to be a non-political, optimistic readaimed primarily at women and people who had stopped buyingnewspapers in recent years.
Instead, it sold fewer than 40,000 daily copies in a countryof around 65 million people, prompting Trinity Mirror to cut itslosses and admit it had overestimated the demand.
"We have tried everything we could but sadly we just haven'treached the sales figures we needed to make it workfinancially," editor Alison Phillips said in a statement.
"To have not given this a go was to mean we were content tostand on the pavement and watch the decline of British nationalnewspapers," she added.
Britain, home to a centuries-old newspaper industry known as"Fleet Street", has like the United States seen growing numbersof readers and advertisers abandon print for online editions.
More than 14 million people from around the world visitedthe MailOnline website per day in March while just 1.6 millionbought the Daily Mail paper. Many others get their news fromsites such as Buzzfeed or social media platforms includingFacebook.
With big brands paying less to advertise online than theywould in a newspaper, that change has put unprecedentedpressures on the industry.
Trinity, which also publishes the Daily Mirror, People andlocal papers, has seen its market value fall more than 80percent since its peak in 2000. It said on Thursday it expectedto hit its annual financial targets despite the volatile printadvertising market.
DOOMED ENTERPRISE
In March Britain's Independent newspaper, launched in 1986,scrapped its print run to just publish online and in January theleft-leaning Guardian said it would slash running costs to tryto break even.
Despite the challenges, Trinity Mirror's Chief ExecutiveSimon Fox had said he believed there was a gap in the market fora new title that, at just 50 pence, could lure readers put offby the sensational headlines splashed by many of its rivals.
The Independent had launched the cut price i newspaper in2010 to reach younger and different readers, but the New Day wasthe first standalone paper to launch in 30 years. The 40-pagepaper offered a brief digest of the news and features and didnot have a website.
Trinity has not said how much it spent on the project butanalysts believe it had spare capacity on its printing presses.
"In order to buck the trend it needed to have a distinctiveidentity that would set it apart from others," said StevenBarnett, professor of communications at the University ofWestminster.
"If was effectively competing with online sites and I don'tthink it ever stood a chance." (Editing by Keith Weir)
