Archant Limited is a newspaper and magazine publishing company with headquarters in Norwich, England. The group publishes four daily newspapers, around 50 weekly newspapers, and 80 consumer and contract magazines. The company is a subsidiary of Newsquest, which is owned by American newspaper publishing company USA Today Company.
Archant employs around 1,250 employees, mainly in East Anglia, the Home counties and the West Country, and was known as Eastern Counties Newspapers Group until March 2002.
Contents
History
1845 to 1900
The company began publishing in Norwich in 1845 with Norfolk News, backed by Jacob Henry Tillet, Jeremiah Colman, John and Johnathan Copeman.
The Eastern Weekly Press was launched in 1867 and in 1870 was renamed the Eastern Daily Press. A sister title, the Eastern Evening News, was launched in 1882.
1900 to 2000
As the business grew it moved premises in 1902, 1959 and again in the late 1960s to its present headquarters location at Prospect House in the centre of Norwich.
At the end of the 1960s, Eastern Counties Newspapers merged with the East Anglian Daily Times Company, publisher of the East Anglian Daily Times, to form Eastern Counties Newspapers Group (ECNG).
ECNG developed further with the launch of Community Media Limited in 1981, a weeklies publishing operation based in Bath, which launched and acquired titles in Scotland and the West Country.
In 1985, ECNG purchased the East Anglia-based Advertiser group of weekly free newspapers. These businesses operated as separate entities until the mid-1990s when they were brought together under the ECNG banner.
ECNG acquired four weekly newspapers in Huntingdon, Ely, Wisbech and March from Thomson in 1993. The acquisition of Peterhead-based P Scrogie followed shortly afterwards.
In 1995 the company opened a new 25m Print Center in Thorpe, Norwich, with Goss HT70 Presses and Muller-Martini Mailroom Equipment, Replacing the Goss Metro Presses at Prospect House.
The company moved into Internet publishing in 1996 when it launched Eastern Counties Network, a Web-based service using copy from its four daily newspapers as well as original material. Later this was disaggregated into separate websites for each of the newspapers.
In April 1998, ECNG bought Home Counties Newspapers Holdings plc with an agreed bid of approximately £58 million. HCNH published a range of 26 weekly paid and free titles across Greater London and the Home Counties. The title portfolio included the Hampstead & Highgate Express, the South Essex Recorder series, the Herts Advertiser series, the Comet series, the Herald group and the Welwyn & Hatfield Times.
Consumer magazine publisher Market Link Publishing, now Archant Specialist, based in Essex was acquired by ECNG for £5 million in autumn 1999. Its titles now include Photography Monthly, Professional Photographer, Pilot, Sport Diver, Complete France, which sponsors a French forum, French Property News, Living France, and France Property Shop.
2000 to present
The launch of a county magazine in Norfolk in 2000 saw the beginning of what is now Archant Life, the country's biggest publisher of county magazines. The division was subsequently scaled through multiple acquisitions in the North West, the Cotswolds and the South and South East of England.
In March 2002, ECNG changed its name to Archant. In December 2003, Archant purchased 27 weekly newspapers from Independent News & Media in two separate deals worth up to £62 million. The titles included the Hackney Gazette, Islington Gazette, the East London Advertiser, the Barking & Dagenham Post, the Bexley Times and the Bromley Times.
In April 2007, Archant Scotland's eight newspaper titles were sold to Johnston Press for around £11 million.
In February 2008, Archant acquired Compass Magazines and its four monthly regional magazines in Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey.
In September 2009, Archant Print completed an £8 million project to bring its press centre in Norwich up to ten printing towers with associated equipment.
In November 2009, Archant launched Great British Life, a website portal. In the same month, Archant launched Subscription Save, a dedicated magazine subscriptions portal for their publications.
In May 2010, Archant launched Cambridge First, a weekly newspaper in Cambridge.
In June 2010, Archant acquired KOS Media Publishing Ltd, the publisher of Kent on Sunday and a series of free weekly newspapers, magazines, websites and mobile products, for an undisclosed sum.
In February 2011, Archant London launched an all-new news & information website for London – London24.
In May 2011, Archant Life acquired the Wye Valley Life and Life in The Marches titles from Wye Valley Media Ltd.
Publications
Magazines
Online and print magazines include:
Airgun World
Archant Life county magazines:
Hampshire Life
Kent Life
Somerset Life
Sussex Life
Essex Life
Norfolk Magazine
Suffolk Magazine
Cheshire Life
Cornwall Life
Cotswold Life
Derbyshire Life
Devon Life
Dorset Magazine
East Suffolk Living
Exeter & East Devon Life
Hertfordshire Life
Lancashire Life
Life in North Wales
Surrey Life
West Essex Life
Yorkshire Life
Daily newspapers
East Anglian Daily Times
Eastern Daily Press (EDP)
Norwich Evening News
Ipswich Star
Weekly paid newspapers
Many of the paid for titles have free online edition (web pages, some also have a digital facsimile of the print edition including advertisements)
Barking & Dagenham Post – Barking and Dagenham, London
Beccles and Bungay Journal – Beccles and Bungay
Brent & Kilburn Times – Brent and Kilburn, London
Cambs Times – Cambridgeshire
Dereham & Fakenham Times – Dereham and Fakenham
Docklands and East London Advertiser— East London
Ely Standard – Ely
Exmouth Journal – Exmouth
Great Yarmouth Mercury – Great Yarmouth
Green Un – an Ipswich-based Association football weekly
Hackney Gazette – Hackney, London
Hampstead & Highgate Express (Ham & High) – Hampstead and Highgate, London (Paid with limited free distribution)
Ilford Recorder – Ilford
Islington Gazette – Islington, London
Lowestoft Journal – Lowestoft
Newham Recorder – Newham, London
North Norfolk News – North Norfolk
The Pink'un – a Norwich-based Association football weekly (digital only)
Weekly free newspapers
Diss Mercury— Diss
Dunmow Broadcast & Recorder – Great Dunmow
Exmouth Herald – Exmouth
The Advertiser – Coastal edition (East Suffolk)
The Advertiser – Great Yarmouth edition
The Advertiser – Ipswich edition – no longer in existence as of 24 June 2020.
The Advertiser – North Norfolk edition
The Advertiser – South Norfolk edition
The Advertiser – Waveney edition
Comet Series – North Hertfordshire
Havering Post – Havering, London
Herts Advertiser Series – St Albans & Harpenden
The Hunts Post – Huntingdonshire
Midweek Herald – East Devon
North Devon Gazette & Advertiser – North Devon
North Somerset Times – North Somerset
Norwich Extra – Delivered every three weeks from 11 November 2019; a decision "driven by our publishing strategy to serve or local communities as effectively as possible while also maximizing the response for advertising clients".
Property Extra
Saffron Walden Reporter – Saffron Walden
Former newspapers
Herts Herald – East Hertfordshire
Kent on Sunday – Kent, Southeast London
yourashford – Ashford, Kent
yourcanterbury – Canterbury
yourdeal – Deal, Kent
yourdover – Dover
yourmaidstone – Maidstone
yourmedway – Medway
yoursandwich – Sandwich, Kent
yourshepway – Folkestone and Hythe
yourswale – Swale
yourthanet – Thanet
The New European - national