Hereford Times

About Hereford Times

First published in 1832, the Hereford Times is one of the oldest weekly newspapers still in print in England, and the definitive record of life in Herefordshire. Published every Thursday in Hereford, it has documented the county's news, sport, farming, business and community life for more than 190 years — through two world wars, the agricultural revolutions, and the birth of the digital age. Today it is owned by the Newsquest Media Group and produced at offices at Skylon Park, Rotherwas, where a combined print and online newsroom serves the county through the weekly paper and the herefordtimes.com website. With print sales of 8,427 copies per issue and an average of 477,600 monthly online users in 2024, it remains the biggest news brand in Herefordshire, a county whose rural character and market towns it has reflected since the days of the stagecoach.

History and Founding

The story of the Hereford Times begins in May 1832, when a prospectus was published announcing a new newspaper for the city and county of Hereford. Its founder was Charles Anthony, a bold and determined journalist who set out to create a publication founded on reformist principles. The philosophy he promised his readers was ambitious: coverage "from grave to gay, from lively to severe," with an avowed commitment to the elucidation of truth and an impartial, open field for men of all parties. It was a radical promise for a provincial paper of its day, and one that the paper has carried on its letters page for much of its life. Anthony was not only an editor but a civic campaigner. He helped pilot through a scheme for a new cattle market favouring Widemarsh Street, presided over the opening of the butter, poultry and meat markets, helped bring about the enlargement of the Shirehall and Eign railway bridge, and campaigned for schools and other civic improvements.

Launching a newspaper in 1832 was a costly gamble. The cover price was set at seven pence at a time when the average farmworker's wage was around £20 a year — and four pence of that seven went straight to the government as stamp duty, the notorious "tax on knowledge" that held back the newspaper industry for decades. The remaining threepence paid for a four-page, six-column broadsheet measuring 24 by 16 inches. Anthony campaigned against the tax and for reform in the city, and the paper's offices, opened in Maylord Street in 1838, carried a tablet recording the gratitude of "a few zealous reformers of the city and county of Hereford" who presented the printing office to Anthony as a testimony of their confidence in his political integrity and his services to the cause of civil and religious liberty. Those foundations carried the paper through its first century.

Ownership Changes Through the 20th Century

The Hereford Times changed hands several times as the British newspaper industry consolidated. In 1910 the paper was effectively saved by a rescue consortium headed by Sir Arthur Croft of Croft Castle. A new editor-manager, Saxon Mills — a journalist and barrister — was appointed, and under the new regime the formerly Whig-leaning paper switched its political allegiance and became staunchly Tory and independent. In 1927 ownership changed again when the Macaskie family, who owned papers in London, bought the title, and five years later they bought and absorbed the rival Hereford Journal for under £1,000. After the death of Mr Macaskie in 1963, the paper was acquired by Berrows, bringing it into major-group ownership for the first time — Berrows was owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International. Reed International then bought the group, including the Hereford Times, in 1982. The modern ownership era began with the creation of Newsquest in 1995 from Reed's regional newspaper arm, and the Times has been a Newsquest title ever since.

Each change of ownership left its mark on how the paper was produced and where it was printed. By 2008 the Hereford Times and the Ludlow and Tenbury Wells Advertiser were being produced from the main Hereford office by an editorial team of 22, with production work done in Worcester and printing at Newsquest's Oxford plant. The editorial operation continued to evolve with the industry: in January 2020 the paper moved out of its "dated" home on Holmer Road — where it had been based since 1990 — to a bright new office at Skylon Park, Rotherwas, some four miles away. Announcing the move, editor John Wilson described Skylon Park as booming and attracting dozens of go-ahead digital businesses, and called the relocation a declaration of Newsquest's continuing commitment to producing the Hereford Times in Herefordshire. The new office was the sixth in the paper's long history.

Editorial Leadership

Over its long life the Hereford Times has been shaped by a succession of editors, from founder Charles Anthony through Saxon Mills to the modern era. In the 2000s the paper was edited by figures including Liz Griffin, who marked the paper's 170th anniversary in 2002 with a series of articles exploring its history, staff and readers, and Fiona Phillips, whose team produced story counts that industry commentators admired. John Wilson took the helm later and presided over the move to Rotherwas. The current editor is Alicia Kelly. Under her leadership the paper continues the weekly rhythm established nearly two centuries ago: a print edition on sale every Thursday, supported by a daily-updated website and social media output that has grown into a major audience in its own right.

The paper's masthead philosophy — indefatigable industry in obtaining early and accurate intelligence — is carried on today by a newsroom described by Newsquest as the county's biggest print and online newsroom. Reporters cover council meetings, courts, farming, business, health and education across Herefordshire, alongside sport, features and the property and motoring sections that have long been staples of the title. The paper has also embraced the modern commercial reality of local media through Newsquest's LOCALiQ marketing services brand, which grew out of the paper's historic strength in local advertising.

Print Readership and Digital Audience

The Hereford Times has long been measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and its audited figures tell the story of a title navigating the shift from print to digital. As of 2024, the paper sold an average of 8,427 print copies per issue — a respectable figure for a rural weekly in an era of declining print sales — while herefordtimes.com averaged 477,600 monthly online users. The digital trajectory has been one of growth: average monthly page impressions rose by 24 per cent in 2019 to 2.73 million, evidence of a weekly that successfully reinvented itself as a daily online news service. In an earlier era, the paper's resilience was equally notable: in 2012 it still sold more than 32,000 copies a week, with copy-sale declines far more modest than those suffered by most regional dailies.

The paper's relationship with its readers has always been unusually close. To mark the 170th anniversary, the paper profiled readers such as 102-year-old Percy Arrowsmith of Breinton Road, who had bought the paper every week since the age of 13 — a total of 4,628 copies — calling it "like a companion" and "the chief local newspaper." Such devotion reflects the paper's role as what one long-serving newsagent called "the local weekly bible" — a reference paper that readers hold on to until the next one comes out, and a marketplace for buying cars, houses and advertising local clubs.

Coverage and Content

The Hereford Times covers events across the whole county of Herefordshire, as well as parts of Worcestershire on the county's outskirts. Its content mix reflects the character of the county: farming and rural affairs sit alongside city news from Hereford itself, market towns such as Ledbury, Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Bromyard and Kington, and the villages of the Wye Valley and the Golden Valley. News pages are supplemented by dedicated sport coverage — including Hereford FC and the county's non-league football, rugby and cricket — plus features, entertainment, lifestyle and a substantial property section. Until recently the paper was published in two separate editions, the North County edition and the City & South edition, a reminder of how deeply localised its coverage once was.

Special features and supplements remain a hallmark of the title. The 160-page editions of the past carried 190 or more news stories across nearly 50 news and features pages, dozens of sports reports and a 44-page Property Times — a scale of output that made the paper one of the most substantial weeklies in the Newsquest group. Campaigning journalism has also been part of its identity: the paper has championed local causes from hospital services to high-street regeneration, continuing the campaigning tradition of Charles Anthony in modern form.

Notable Stories and Campaigns

Across nearly two centuries the Hereford Times has recorded the defining moments of Herefordshire life. Its pages chronicled the coming of the railways, the agricultural depression, two world wars and the county's administrative mergers and demergers. In more recent decades its reporters covered the stories that gripped the county: the murder of local woman Dorothy Davies in 1977, which had readers desperate for news; the long-running saga of Hereford United and its successor club Hereford FC; the foot-and-mouth crisis that devastated the county's farming community; and the floods that have repeatedly tested the county's resilience. The paper's court reporting and its investigations into local authority decisions have kept it at the centre of public debate in the county.

The paper has also been a stage for the human stories behind the headlines. Its anniversary features have celebrated everything from century-old readers to the newsagents who have sold the paper for generations, such as John Hyde, who began selling the Hereford Times in 1955 and described it as a reference paper that readers keep until the next edition arrives. These community portraits are as much a part of the paper's identity as its hard news.

Sister Titles and Local Editions

As a Newsquest title, the Hereford Times sits within one of the UK's largest regional publishing groups, alongside hundreds of sister titles across the country. Within the Midlands South region it has historically shared editorial resources with neighbouring titles, including the Ludlow and Tenbury Wells Advertiser, which is produced from the Hereford offices. The paper's relationship with its advertisers is also institutional: the Property Times, motoring and jobs supplements have been central to its commercial success, and the growth of the LOCALiQ digital marketing brand from the paper's advertising operation reflects how the title has adapted its historic role as the county's marketplace to the internet era.

The consolidation of editions — from the North County and City & South editions of the past to a single county edition — mirrors the wider consolidation of the regional press. Yet the paper's commitment to remaining a Herefordshire paper, produced in the county, has been repeatedly reaffirmed, most notably in the 2020 move to Rotherwas, which the editor presented as a statement of Newsquest's continuing investment in local production.

Archives and Heritage

The complete back run of the Hereford Times is one of the great documentary resources for Herefordshire history. Bound volumes and microfilm copies stretching back to 1832 are held by libraries and archives, and the British Newspaper Archive has digitised large parts of the paper's history, making more than a century of Herefordshire news searchable online. For family historians, local historians and genealogists, the paper's birth, marriage and death notices, its reports of quarter sessions and petty sessions, its advertisements and its auction notices form an irreplaceable record of the county's social history.

The paper has marked its own milestones with characteristic thoroughness. The 170th anniversary in 2002 was celebrated with a series of articles by editor Liz Griffin on the paper's history, its staff and its readers, drawing on the archive to tell the story of a title that has been present at every significant moment in the county's modern history. As the paper approaches its 200th anniversary, that archive remains its greatest asset — and its greatest responsibility.

Reading the Hereford Times Today

Today's reader can find the Hereford Times in newsagents across Herefordshire every Thursday, or follow its coverage daily at herefordtimes.com, where breaking news, live blogs, sport and features are published around the clock. The website is complemented by active social media channels and email newsletters, extending the paper's reach far beyond the county's borders to the Herefordshire diaspora. The print edition remains the flagship: a tabloid package of news, sport, features, property, motoring and entertainment that continues to sell in the thousands each week.

For a paper founded when the stamp duty made every copy a luxury, the Hereford Times has proved remarkably durable. Its survival through nearly 200 years of technological upheaval — from hot metal to digital — is a testament to the founding vision of Charles Anthony and to the generations of journalists who have kept his promise of early and accurate intelligence alive. In a media landscape where local news is under constant pressure, the Hereford Times stands as proof that a weekly newspaper, deeply rooted in its community, can still matter.