Ipswich Star

About Ipswich Star

The Ipswich Star is a daily local newspaper serving Ipswich and the surrounding towns and villages of Suffolk. Founded on 17 February 1885, it has chronicled the life of England's oldest continually inhabited town for well over a century, from its Victorian beginnings as a halfpenny evening paper to its present incarnation as a multimedia news operation published Monday to Friday. Published by Newsquest, it sits alongside its sister morning title, the East Anglian Daily Times, as one of the two great pillars of the Suffolk press.

History and Founding

The newspaper first went on sale on 17 February 1885 under the name The Star of the East, priced at one ha'penny. It was the product of the great Victorian expansion of the provincial press, launched into a town that was rapidly industrialising around its docks, engineering works and the railway. From its very first edition, the paper carried a bold star at the centre of its front-page design, an emblem that would return to the masthead more than a century later.

In 1893, after eight years under its original title, the paper was renamed The Evening Star, the name under which it would be known for almost 120 years. The Evening Star became woven into the fabric of Ipswich life across the twentieth century, covering everything from the town's wartime experiences and the growth of its port to the triumphs of Ipswich Town Football Club. In 2010, the paper celebrated its 125th anniversary with a series of community events, an eight-page sponsored supplement, a gala lunch and street parties, while its archives were made available online to schools across Suffolk to support local history teaching.

The newspaper's news operations were merged with those of the East Anglian Daily Times in 2010, and on 23 January 2012 The Evening Star was rebranded as the Ipswich Star, with a separate Felixstowe Star edition for the coastal town. Both editions were published Monday to Friday only, the Saturday edition having become unviable.

Ownership and Publishing

The Ipswich Star has long been published by the same company as the East Anglian Daily Times. Its publisher, Archant, traces its roots to Norwich in 1845, when it began publishing with the Norfolk News, backed by figures including Jeremiah Colman of the mustard-making family. The company became the Eastern Counties Newspapers Group in 1962 following a merger with the East Anglian Daily Times Company, and rebranded as Archant in March 2002. Archant is now part of Newsquest, itself owned by the USA Today Co., placing the Star within one of the largest regional publishing networks in the English-speaking world.

Headquarters in Ipswich

For around half a century, the paper was based at Lower Brook Street in Ipswich. In October 2016, journalists from the Ipswich Star and the East Anglian Daily Times moved into a new office at Portman House, on the corner of Princes Street and Portman Road, next door to Ipswich Town Football Club's stadium. The building, originally a warehouse for the cigar maker Churchman, marked only the fifth move in the newspapers' history since 1874. Archant's then chief executive Jeff Henry described the move as a major investment demonstrating confidence in Ipswich and Suffolk.

The 2016 Relaunch

The move to Portman Road coincided with a relaunch of the Ipswich Star under a radically redesigned masthead. The new design dropped red from the front page in favour of what the paper called "Ipswich Town blue", in honour of the football club whose ground is a stone's throw from the office, and reinstated the bold star that had appeared on the first edition of 1885. Editor Brad Jones described the changes as a statement of intent and a modernisation of the Star, declaring an ambition for the paper to inform, surprise, entertain and connect with the town's many communities across print and digital platforms. The relaunch was paired with a campaign for a northern bypass for the town.

Coverage Area and Readership

The Ipswich Star serves Ipswich, the county town of Suffolk, and its surrounding communities, with a dedicated Felixstowe Star edition serving the port town. Ipswich is one of England's oldest towns, with a maritime heritage centred on the Wet Dock, and in recent decades has grown into a regional hub for insurance, technology and the creative industries, developments the paper has chronicled closely. In the period from December 2010 to June 2011, the paper's average daily circulation stood at 15,351, a figure that had fallen to 5,423 by the July to December 2018 audit period as the industry-wide shift to digital continued. By 2024, audited circulation stood at 2,364.

Editorial Content and Sections

As a daily evening title, the Star built its reputation on same-day local news: town and county politics, the courts, policing, education and health. Sport has always been central, above all the fortunes of Ipswich Town, but also cricket, rugby and grassroots athletics. Business coverage reflects Ipswich's evolving economy, from the historic docks and Willis insurance to the modern waterfront regeneration and the town's digital sector. The paper has also long championed community causes, running campaigns on road infrastructure, health services and town-centre regeneration.

Digital Presence

The paper's website, ipswichstar.co.uk, is its primary platform for breaking news, carrying stories throughout the day alongside the print edition's agenda. Like its Archant stablemates, the Star invested heavily in digital products through the 2010s, including an iPad app launched around the time of its rebrand. Social media channels extend the paper's reach into the town's many communities, and the site hosts the announcements, tributes and public notices that have become a staple of the regional press online.

Campaigns and Community Role

Campaigning journalism has been a hallmark of the Star across its history. The 2016 northern bypass campaign, launched alongside the masthead relaunch, followed a long tradition of the paper lobbying for infrastructure investment in Suffolk. During its 125th anniversary year in 2010, the paper positioned itself explicitly as a community institution, staging events from street parties to a gala lunch and inviting the town to share in its birthday. Its reporting on Ipswich Town Football Club, the town's best-known institution, has given generations of supporters their daily record of the club.

Challenges of the Modern Era

The Ipswich Star has faced the same structural pressures as the entire UK regional press: the migration of classified and display advertising online, and the steady erosion of print circulation. The separation of the free Ipswich Advertiser from the newspaper accelerated the decline in audited sales, which fell from more than 15,000 a day in 2011 to around 6,000 by 2018, with paid-for sales lower still. The paper responded by consolidating its newsroom with the East Anglian Daily Times, investing in its website and focusing its print edition on the stories that matter most to Ipswich readers.

Legacy and Place in Suffolk Journalism

Few provincial newspapers can claim the unbroken lineage of the Ipswich Star: from The Star of the East in 1885 through The Evening Star to the present title, it has appeared through two world wars, the decline and rebirth of the docks, and the transformation of Ipswich into a modern regional centre. Its 2016 decision to bring back the star of its first edition was a deliberate statement of continuity. As Suffolk's evening paper, it remains the town's daily mirror — and its 140-year archive, from halfpenny broadsheets to digital editions, is one of the richest records of East Anglian life in existence.