How Brexit changed the British media

"Even if the result had gone the other way, I think The New European would have happened because those people were out there — in fact, I'm surprised there weren't 10 New Europeans launched that week, it's a failure of the industry that this huge opportunity wasn't more widely recognized."

Kelly, whose regular job is head of content for Archant Media, which publishes 110 newspapers and magazines nationwide, found himself at the head of a new project, initially scheduled to run for just four editions.

Coming up to three years and more than 130 editions later, his extensive background in tabloid journalism combined with a contacts book full of top-quality writers — and the twists and turns of the Brexit process — have helped The New European become an established and respected media presence, with a weekly readership of around 20,000, flying the flag for Remain in an increasingly agitated journalistic landscape.

The indignation that first inspired the paper remains at its heart, but as time has passed it has expanded its remit to take in more issues of interest to its readership.

"The paper's evolution has been quite haphazard, there's never been any great plan, but the more conscious I've been that there might be a longer-term future for a progressive center-left paper, the broader I've tried to make it," Kelly explained.

After a flourishing start —"when I got the first circulation figures, and was told we'd sold 40,000 copies of the first edition, I jumped up in the air in public and shouted, people must have thought I'd won the lottery" — the paper did suffer a dip in circulation that made Kelly question its future, but it now has a stable and loyal readership.

Its production team and budget remain minimal, but as Brexit grows more complicated by the day, The New European's contribution to the British political debate becomes ever more valid and it has become increasingly loved — and loathed.