New Tab-loid to launch at Warwick

A new tabloid is expected to launch at Warwick in October as part of a wave of new red-tops across UK universities.

The Warwick Tab tells readers to expect “fun and fast news, gossip and scandal”.

A Facebook page and Twitter profile were set up over summer to advertise the launch but the Boar has been unable to contact the editor for details.

The website promises features such as ‘BNOC of the week’, ‘Club night photos’ and ‘Fit lecturers’.

However President of Warwick Students’ Union (SU) Nick Swain is apprehensive. He said: “The current concerns I have about the Tab are the fact that it is in no way affiliated with the SU or University and the content of some of their previous publications, especially at Cambridge.

“Having said that, I generally support a free press and hope that a competitor to the Boar will result in superior journalism and a publication that benefits and better informs all students at Warwick.”

Whilst the Tab will be an online-only publication, the new red-top is seen as direct competition with the _Boar_.

“I’m interested to see how the Tab will take form at Warwick, as it’s completely different to the Boar,” said editor of the Boar, Natasha Clark.

“I hope it will drive up the quality of content and create some healthy rivalry between us, and encourage interesting, investigative journalism that will both hold officials to account and promote the voices of those who are unheard.”

Nevertheless the Boar’s deputy editor Tom Newham objects to the paper’s centrality. He said: “I don’t think anybody really objects to Warwick having a tabloid but we’d prefer to see it set up by and for Warwick students, as opposed to being run out of an office somewhere in London.”

Oxford, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Leeds and Cardiff are just a few of the universities which are expected to launch an edition of the Tab in the autumn.

The first was founded at Cambridge University in 2009.

The Tab has been endorsed by former News of the World reporter and self-confessed phone-hacker Paul McMullan. “The best journalists in the world are those who write concise, high quality prose, which is essential for the tabloids,” said McMullan.

“It’s great to see that tabloids are still flourishing in spite of the fact that the national ones are biting the dust.”

Former _Sun_ editor Kelvin MacKenzie has also praised the student tabloid, which was shortlisted for Digital Innovation of the year at The Newspaper Awards 2012 for being a “truly inspired approach to providing student media”.

The Exeter Drop and Durham One will also relaunch under the name the Tab.