Research on local newspapers

This is research into other local newspapers and this enabled me to see how the newspapers are distributed, how they are owned, what the owners are like, and how they represented in the other areas of the country.

Metro London
• Launched - 16th March 1999
• Owner of paper – Daily Mail and General Trust, owning other newspapers such as metros, for Metro (Brighton), Metro (Cardiff, Swansea & Newport), Metro (East Midlands) , Metro (Liverpool), Metro (North East), Metro (North West), Metro (Scotland), Metro (West Country), Metro (West Midlands), Metro (Yorkshire), and including many other newspapers across the regions locally.
• Product type – Bulk Distribution, meaning they distributed in large amounts instead of smaller.
• Total distribution figure for newspaper - 762,541
• Registered under the ABC website since 1999.

The Bromley Times
• Owned by Archant Ltd • Joined ABC in 1986, but is no longer register under ABC now.
• Sector based in Kent.
• Former names - Bromley & District Express and Orpington & Chislehurst Express (Archant Ltd), Bromley & Orpington Leader (Archant Ltd)
• Distribution figures - 29,631 Total Average Net Circulation / Distribution per Issue.
• Product type is Regional Publication.
• Including the suburbs of Orpington, Chislehurst, Biggin Hill and Beckenham.
• It’s published by Kentish Times Newspapers, a branch of Archant London
• Editors of paper are based in Sidcup.

Bromley News shopper
• Owned by Newquest Media Group
• Editor Andrew Parkes
• Sector based in is Kent
• Former names - Bromley News Shopper Series (News Shopper Ltd)
• Product type is Regional publications.
• First Joined ABC in 1986
• Distribution Figures - 73,770 Total Average Net Circulation / Distribution Per Issue
• Still registered under ABC.

I have learned that the local newspaper industry is quite a well established part of society and contains many different types of papers to choose from, as shown from the few local ones selected above, it shows us that they are producing a large amount of papers to distribute, and that they have many different versions of the paper in different areas of the country, which will enhance the reputation of that paper, but this is mostly down to who infact owns that newspaper. This type of information is relevant to me, for it gives me an idea of what type of audience to focus on, location to be based in, distribution figures and techniques, etc. The paper that may be willing to publish my paper is mostly likely to be "The Bromley Times", for I am targeting the same local area it is, the paper itself is very conventional and is alike to mine for I chose to follow most conventions also. The only slight difference is the age range of target audience and that my paper "Bromley Now" is more a sport orientated paper.