NEWSPLAN West Midlands

History and Society Through Local Newspapers
in the West Midlands

Newspaper history in the West Midlands region

Newspapers have always provided a unique insight into the history and development of any area and the West Midlands region is no exception. Many titles have come and gone over the years, some hugely successful and still running, others dying a lamentable death after just one or two issues.

In the West Midlands area, newspaper production really began in the eighteenth century and the most successful of Birmingham titles at this time was The Birmingham Gazette and General Correspondent, first issued on Monday 16th November 1741 by Thomas Aris, a London printer and stationer who had moved to Birmingham and started his printing business in the High Street. This newspaper eventually became popularly known as Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, beginning as a weekly, changing to a daily in the 1860s and surviving until 1956 when it merged with the Birmingham Post.

Other prominent titles include the Warwickshire Weekly Journal, beginning its life in the mid-eighteenth century, the Wolverhampton Chronicle beginning in 1789 and the Staffordshire Advertiser, first published in 1795. Berrow’s Worcester Journal claims a history back to the 17th century although the earliest surviving copies located so far date from 1711.

The early newspapers tended to carry mostly news reprinted from the London papers and local content was much less prominent until the mid-nineteenth century when provincial newspapers came to be a voice for their local area. Of approximately 1100 titles published in the West Midlands region over the last 300 years, more than 130 were still in circulation in the 1990s.

Since the 1970s, there has been an explosion in the number of free distribution newspapers, funded solely by advertising revenue. The names of some historic titles still live on in the names of these free newspapers, which are often seen as inferior in the world of paid-for titles. However, some free newspapers contain a significant proportion of high-quality editorial content and have a good reputation within the community. They often include local features and stories not reported in the paid-for titles, particularly if the paid-for newspaper covers a wider geographical area than the local free paper. Sometimes, these free papers can be short-lived and it is an ongoing challenge for libraries to identify new titles and ensure that copies are preserved for the future.

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