Shropshire Star

The Shropshire Star is reputedly the fifth biggest-selling regional evening newspaper in Britain. It is based in Ketley, Telford, and covers the whole of Shropshire plus parts of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Mid Wales.

Shropshire Star
TypeDaily regional newspaper
Owner(s)Midland News Association
EditorMartin Wright
Founded5 October 1964
Political alignmentConservative
HeadquartersWaterloo Road,
Ketley,
Telford,
Shropshire
Circulation16,625 (Paid Circulation, ABC July to December 2019)[1]
Sister newspapersExpress & Star
Websiteshropshirestar.com

Currently edited by Martin Wright,[2] the Shropshire Star publishes one edition on Monday through Saturday. In the first half of 2012, the newspaper had a daily circulation of 49,751, but this fell to 46,498 in the second half of 2012 [3] and paid circulation had declined to just 19,291 by December 2018.[1]

It is printed at its editorial headquarters in Ketley.

The Shropshire Star has been under the continuous ownership of the Graham/Meier family almost since its inception. The family controls the publication through their equity stake in Midland News Association (MNA), which also owns the Express & Star newspaper.

History

The Shropshire Star has been in circulation since Monday 5 October 1964,[4] inheriting a nightly circulation of around 19,000 from the old Shropshire edition of the Express & Star.[5] Despite criticism from other journalistic and publishing sources, the papers' circulation increased to 20,000 by 1965 and had reached 100,000 by 1984.[6]

The Midland News Association board saw an opportunity with the growth of Dawley New Town - later renamed Telford - and produced a successful news and advertising product to serve a county which is a mixture of agriculture and industrial areas.

The Shropshire Star later became the first evening newspaper in Europe to use web-fed offset printing, which refers to the use of rolls (or webs) of paper supplied to the printing press.[5][7]

Online media

The Shropshire Star publishes breaking news and sport content online each day, in addition to regular blogs and unique video content. Its website, shropshirestar.com,[8] was launched in 1997.

According to an ABC report, the Shropshire Star website had, at one time, the second highest rise in average monthly unique users across the whole of the regional press - up 41.8 per cent to 469,827.

August 2012 saw the website re-launched in a responsive web design alongside its sister title expressandstar.com[9] – believed to be the first of any other regional newspaper websites in the UK.[10]

A Shropshire Star App for iPad and iPhone was launched in January 2012, using page-turning technology to mimic the look and feel of the actual newspaper.

The website also offers free access to the weekly Chronicle and Journal series. By 2015, the term Shropshire Star was being inputted into search engines more than 200,000 times per calendar month, which made it the most popular search string with the word Shropshire in the request.[11]

Editors

This list is incomplete

  • Keith Parker (1972 – 1977)[12]
  • Robert Jones (1977 - 1991)
  • Warren Wilson (1992 – 1994)
  • Andy Wright (1994 – 1998)
  • Adrian Faber (1998 – 2001)
  • Sarah-Jane Smith (2001 – 2011)[13]
  • Keith Harrison (2011 – 2013)[14]
  • Martin Wright (2013 - )

Notable Journalists

Editions
  • Three different editions: Telford (Last), Shrewsbury, and rural Shropshire and Mid Wales.

See also

References
  1. "Audit Bureau of Circulation: Summary Report – Shropshire Star" (PDF). Abc.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  2. "New editor appointed for Shropshire Star". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  3. "Regional ABCs: Paid-for local press circulation drops by 6.4 per cent". Press Gazette. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  4. "Leslie Stallard;Obituary". The Times. 29 December 1993. ProQuest 318045338.
  5. Brimacombe, Nick (16 January 2014). "Shropshire Star kicks off anniversary celebrations with supplement". Hold the Front Page. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  6. "Malcolm Graham;Obituary". The Times. 16 April 1993. ProQuest 317952771.
  7. "About Us - Shropshire Star". www.shropshirestar.com. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  8. "Shropshire News - Midlands News - Breaking News UK « Shropshire Star". Shropshirestar.com. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  9. "Midlands News – West Midlands Local News - UK News « Express & Star". Expressandstar.com. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  10. "Why the Express and Star went 'mobile-first' and responsive". Journalism.co.uk. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  11. "'Shropshire Star' Searched 200,000 Times A Month In Google - Ascendancy Internet Marketing". Ascendancy Internet Marketing. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  12. "Keith Parker: 'Doughty fighter' and pioneer of the 'total newspaper' - Press Gazette". Press Gazette. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  13. Gunter, Joel (29 July 2011). "Shropshire Star editor quits after 10 years". journalism.co.uk. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  14. Pugh, Andrew (7 March 2013). "The Press Awards: Live coverage from the Lancaster London Hotel - Press Gazette". Press Gazette. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  15. Sweney, Mark (26 March 2015). "Jeremy Clarkson to his critics: go and create a rival to Top Gear". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 October 2018. This recalls information given by him in his last column for Top Gear magazine prior to his dismissal by the BBC.
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