Rising Sun or Bland Read?

New sunny dawn or cloudy day?

Last week, Rupert Murdoch promised the dawn of a new era in tabloid newspapers. Did the newly launched Sun on Sunday live up to that hype? I took a look at it from a Branding perspective.

In reality, it's more of an extension of the weekday Sun's Brand, but the launch is a great opportunity for analysis. So, what's the Sun on Sunday all about?

* Vision - it's a new era for the UK's best selling newspaper
* Mission - to put readers' interests, fears, hopes and aspirations at the centre of what they do
* Values - trust, outspoken, decency, entertaining, never boring
* Essence - Fearless & fun
* Personality - Defender and Joker

I took a walk over to shops to buy the first edition - thinking that maybe one day, when I'm talking to my future grandchild, I can say, "This was the moment a new era dawned."

So, what did I think?

Bit pathetic, frankly. No particularly fearless stories, not a huge amount of fun, no real evidence of decency. Couldn't find much that was outspoken. After over 100 pages, very little struck me as memorable!

All in all, a pretty boring and a bland, bland, bland read!

But one redeeming feature was a headline buried on an inside page. Referring to Nelson Mandela's stomach operation, that snippet bore the headline "Mandelly Belly."

That's more like it.

But it's a war out there, isn't it?

So, even though this first edition looks a pretty poor weapon, it is war out there amongst the Sunday papers. I'm sure the News International army and General Murdoch would love to be able to say in a few month's time "It's the Sun wot won it!"

Last word: I'm offering a PRIZE to the first 4N reader who contacts me when and why the Sun used that triumphant headline.

This article first appeared in my weekly news letter Brand Thoughts available at www.livinginsidethebrand.com/newsletters