No, these images of Independent front pages are not phantoms. Although the newspaper in its printed form is no more, its executives are determined that its newsprint-style covers should live on... through its tablet editions.
Over the past three days the familiar Indy front pages have been turning up on iPads. Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s can be seen above, and Monday’s is below. They certainly look like the Independent, even if they don’t exist in the old ink-on-paper format.
The Independent’s former editor (now its editor-at-large), Amol Rajan, explains that they were determined to produce tablet versions of the paper that were “true in spirit to the Independent that everyone has known.”
They also help to promote the commentators and columnists - such as Matthew Norman, John Rentoul, Steve Richards and Jane Merrick - who have been with the Independent titles for so long.
Rajan tells me that the paper’s co-founder, Andreas Whittam Smith, has been particularly struck by the way in which the tablet screen reproductions look like authentic print fronts.
Indeed, the “inside pages” also have the patina of the printed Independent.
