The Tart is the first of its kind in the UK: a free, national, satirical student newspaper. It is written by a core of 60 writers from across the country, and its initial print run of 60,000 copies is being distributed to 10 university campuses with hopes of expanding to more in the future. It’s an ambitious venture spearheaded by recent Bristol graduate, Tobes Kelly.

Kelly, 22, has been engaged in setting up his own media company (Tart Media) for the best part of a year, and since graduating earlier this year, has been busying himself promoting the newspaper, website, and planned TV operation, with characteristic zeal.

“It’s a blend with wit and observation, put in a tabloid format,” he enthuses. “I quite like how visual tabloids can be.”

For a mere tabloid - what he describes as just a “five minute flick – before, during or after lectures,” - Kelly has lofty aspirations.

“Satire is very difficult, I think. It should never be destructive; paradoxically, I think it should be constructive. Now, I’m not guaranteeing we’re not going to be offensive, but I think we need to encourage and educate students,” he explains.

The Tart is just the beginning of Kelly's grand vision for the nation's student media. He has a “three year plan” for his media company which includes the paper's website where there will be “a plethora of content” not included in the paper, and an internet TV operation with a weekly show. He’s even got the actor and studio already lined up.

Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Bristol, Warwick, Bath, Sheffield, Reading, Cardiff and York are the first universities where The Tart is being distributed. But the newspaper will potentially be distributed to more universities across the UK. The team is even mulling over whether to make the venture global.

“I’m tempted to send the paper out of the UK” said Kelly. “We’ve had one or two people from universities in France who have expressed an interest in it.”

Kelly is in a remarkable position. Thanks to the benevolence of a mysterious private funder, he did not have to find any advertising for the first issue of The Tart. This is all he will reveal about his enigmatic benefactor:

“He believes in me, to be frank. He believes in the product. And he believes in what we’re trying to do at university.”

The Tart's masthead almost had a very different destiny. “It was horrendous with coming up with names, actually. It was going to be called "The Clap". But then that has some weird connotations,” explained Kelly.

He thinks The Tart is the perfect loo-side companion but will it hook student readers in the longer term? Epigram, Bristol’s student newspaper – and a rival to this 'new Tart on the block' – is, unsurprisingly, sceptical.

“It is likely that before too long, most readers will have grown bored of student attempts at satire and wit,” its latest editorial declares. “Banter has never looked too good in print.”

But Kelly’s media background should hold him in good stead. He was news editor at Bristol University’s Burst Radio and editor of Bristol’s franchise of The Sanctuary, a biting student tabloid where he honed his satirical craft. “All of this involves a wry sense of humour. Because you’ve got to get through some of the crap,” he said.

So what provocation and controversy can we expect from the editor who revelled in installing a page three in his former university paper?

“There’s no need to be PC. I don’t think. Careful – yes. Respectful – yes. But I sort of rankle at PC. We have been discussing politically incorrect things. A lot of them have been to do with faith. But I think we’re going to keep it quite light on the faith basis, for now.”

And a page three? “Oh, I’ve done that! I’ve got that out of my system I think,” he says with a cheeky grin.

Issue 2 of The Tart is out now.

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