This week saw the first new quality daily newspaper launched in the UK for nearly 25 years. What does this mean - a last hurrah for the original media channel, or the beginnings of a print renaissance. Or is it a rich man's (one Mr Lebedev, who owns - well practically everything) folly that is simply late to the party?

At this stage it's way to early to tell, but the "i" is best placed to succeed as any new paper could be, with a strong financial backing and a robust editorial pedigree. As business ventures go, launching a new paper at a economically tricky moment, in a market place that is still wondering about iPads, e-publishing and pay-walls seems a little foolhardy. It's not even a free sheet, which personally I think can only be a good thing. The Evening Standard has definitely declined in quality (and editorial content) since switching to free distribution, and the Metro just makes me angry at its smugness and incompetence. 

(Clancy the Cream chimp: Better than the Metro)

For a media journalist, new titles can only be A Good Thing. So I wish Mr Lebedev the best of luck with the "i".

For a more considered opinion on the "i", here is an excerpt from Rebecca Ironside's opinion piece on Cream.

"It’s the first quality daily newspaper launch for nearly 25 years, and on first glance, i looks like many people’s idea of the perfect read. It does exactly what Alexander Lebedev’s Independent Print Limited group said it would do. It’s modern, accessible and a bit more upmarket than Metro. It’s got an eye-catching cover, it’s colourful, has great signposting and an impressive News Matrix that gives the reader bite-sized chunks of all the main news stories at a glance.

And it’s generated good feeling among media buyers, which is always important.

But there’s a major market issue that put a question mark over the long-term success of i: the 20p cover price.

The Independent’s executives say the cost was fixed through market research and on a stand-alone level; it is a brilliant price point. Yet no newspaper fights on the newsstands alone these days. The freebies, including the Independent’s own Evening Standard, have long given the paid-for sheets a run for their money, based mainly on the fact that they’re put directly into people’s hands."

Read Rebecca's full article here.