Trinity Mirror may be considering more “reverse publishing” hyper-local products, the company's regional editorial director has hinted, Press Gazette reported Thursday.

Neil Benson said the Teesside Evening Gazette has been successful after launching six free newspapers made up of content from the region's 20 local citizen journalism Web sites since December 2005.

“It's still early days but I think things are going better than we expected, so we are keeping a close eye on it and I wouldn't be surprised if we spread it further afield,” Benson told Press Gazette. “First, we want to increase the overall audience, and then, if we can do that, we can make a commercial success out of it.”

The hyper-local sites pulled in a combined 40,600 unique users in July, according to internal figures.

Benson said the number of unique users is increasing rapidly, bringing in advertising that is smaller and more local than the Teesside Evening Gazette would normally get.

“I think that much of the doom and gloom about the regional press has come from commentators,” Benson told Press Gazette. “The death of the regional press is exaggerated, but we have to find a new business model, because things are changing ... I don't know if hyper-local sites are the Holy Grail or another cul-de-sac, but at this stage we are encouraged by them and they might be one of a number of things we can do.”