How will other Sundays react to the Star's entry? The Sunday Star may have been regarded as a joke at first, but are its red-top rivals ready for a bloody readership battle? (Forum).(Editorial)

The Sunday Star may have been regarded as a joke at first, but are its red-top rivals ready for a bloody readership battle?

It's not often that we're accused of asking a witty, droll and sophisticated Forum question. Last week, we caught one marketing director just back from an early Easter break in a part of the world where access to media gossip is limited. "We're doing a piece on the launch of the Sunday Star," we said. There was a brief yet awkward silence, then a dry laugh. "I get it," they said. "I get it ... this is for your April Fool's issue. It is, isn't it?"

No, actually. But we can sympathise with the response. It was a common reaction as the news leaked out -- whatever way you looked at it, this had to be more or less amusing in a surreal sort of a way. Richard Desmond, eh? What is he like? This had to be a spoof. Part of a postmodern, ambient, guerrilla branding campaign for his Express Group. An exercise in proving that they're just about as bonkers as we always thought they were.

The plain fact of the matter is that the Sunday market has been contracting for years and that contraction has been felt most painfully at the red-top end of the market. It has been haemorrhaging sales for decades -- in the last six months alone the decline has been 2.17 per cent. For years there has been talk that there will eventually be a casualty, probably the Sunday People -- which, incidentally, Desmond allegedly tried to buy from the Mirror Group a few weeks back. Some mischief-makers even suggested, before it became apparent that Desmond is serious about the Sunday Star, that talk of its launch was a ruse to force through the sale of the Sunday People. One thing is for sure, though -- there isn't room for another title. Is there? The Express Group was predictably shy and retiring when it came to the blowing of its own trumpet. In particular, the advertising director, Stan Myerson, was unwilling to talk up the potential of his new baby. But, rival publishers say, the Express Group should not be ashamed to admit it has genuine ambitions in this market.

Neil Hurman, the advertising director of Trinity Mirror, points out that the Sunday market is not exactly suffering from under-population, but he believes it would be a mistake to dismiss the Sunday Star. He states: "I don't see a nice gap for it to slot into so on the face of it this is a bold call. You'd be barking mad to start from scratch, but they're not and t suspect that Desmond can produce the paper at a modest cost and carry through his [Daily Star] readership -- assuming an incentivised price point -- to make a profit on fewer copy sales than we may suppose.

"They will probably find it easier to convert the readership than the advertiser base though. In terms of its effect on the rest of the market, I think that we will see an increase in multiple purchase that will account for most of the Sunday Star sale -- with the News of the World, the Star reader's favourite Sunday tipple potentially suffering the most."

But the big question, Hurman adds, is what all this says about Desmond's commitment to the Express titles. "At best this is a distraction from confronting the pretty awful state of those titles. At worst it's a drain on resources that puts them further away from a ...