Kent on Sunday
Overview
Kent on Sunday was a regional newspaper covering the county of Kent in the United Kingdom, published every Sunday from 2002 until November 2017. It was the first and flagship newspaper of KOS Media, the publishing company founded by Paul Stannard and based at Smeeth, near Ashford, and it became one of the most decorated free newspapers in Britain, twice winning Free Weekly Newspaper of the Year at the Newspaper Society's Weekly Newspaper Awards. Available from supermarkets, garages and newsagents, the paper combined regional news and sport with retail, leisure and lifestyle features and the jobs, cars and property sections its readers expected. Archant, which bought KOS Media in 2010, closed the title in November 2017 after fifteen years, judging that it was no longer economically viable.
Founding and Early Years
KOS Media was set up in 2002 by Paul Stannard, a former executive with Adscene, Kent Regional Newspapers and Trinity Mirror Southern. Kent on Sunday, launched that year as a free newspaper, was the company's founding product and its proof of concept: a county-wide Sunday paper for Kent, a market with no Sunday title of its own, where readers otherwise relied on national Sunday papers and the weekday output of the established KM Group. The paper was produced from the company's base at Apple Barn, Smeeth, near Ashford.
Success came quickly. At the Newspaper Society Weekly Newspaper Awards for 2003, Kent on Sunday was named Free Weekly Newspaper of the Year and best free weekly in the South East, and its journalist Shelley Whittaker took the free weekly feature journalist award. The paper repeated the double in 2007, again winning Free Weekly Newspaper of the Year nationally and in the South East, while Chris Britcher — later its editor — took silver in the free weekly sports journalist category. Its publisher later summarised the group's record as more than ten national awards, including UK Free Weekly Newspaper of the Year six times.
Building a County Network
Kent on Sunday's success funded expansion. In March 2005 KOS Media launched a Saturday companion, the Kentish Saturday Observer, and in the summer of 2007 it introduced free local papers for different parts of Kent, published on Wednesdays under the 'your' brand; three more followed in 2009. The Kentnews.co.uk website carried the group's journalism online, and the company launched YourKentTV, an internet television channel providing local news and features, produced magazines including the Review lifestyle, entertainment and property guide, Isle Magazine, Visit Kent and Taste of Kent, and published BBC Radio Kent County Life under contract for the BBC — a commission that drew a complaint from the rival KM Group. In its early years the paper also carried local editions under the "Your Local" series, digital news and sport titles with jobs, leisure, cars and property content and a comprehensive leisure and lifestyle section. KOS Media was also one of the first local media organisations to produce its own iPhone application, letting readers browse its papers on iPhone and iPad.
From Free to Part Paid-For
Until May 2009 all KOS Media newspapers, Kent on Sunday included, were free. In June 2009 the paper began to charge in newsagents — 90p per issue — while free copies were directed to business rounds and home delivery, a part-free, part paid-for model designed to increase availability through the retail trade. The e-edition remained available free online or by subscription.
The change came amid a severe advertising recession. KOS Media's managing director Paul Stannard was quoted at the time warning that if the market continued to decline at the rate of the previous six months, every media company would be looking at its business model. Archant, which had held a minority interest in KOS Media since 2005, invested £215,000 in the business in 2008 and a further £300,000 in 2009, and its annual report recorded its share of the associate company's losses growing from £158,000 to £196,000 as advertising revenues fell short.
The Archant Takeover and Relaunch
In June 2010 Archant took complete control of KOS Media for an undisclosed sum, following a restructuring of the company's holding company. The group then employed around seventy full-time staff. Archant's chief executive Adrian Jeakings said the acquisition strengthened its existing presence in Kent and provided a springboard for further investment. The takeover set up a heavyweight contest in the county between Archant and the dominant local publisher, the family-owned KM Group.
Under Archant, the paper was relaunched in January 2011 with a new masthead, accompanied by an advisory panel arrangement under which council bosses were to advise journalists on the paper's content. The same restructuring period saw the company's midweek 'your' titles taken out of print and published only as e-editions, and an editorial restructure announced in December 2010 that put eight jobs at risk — an early sign of the pressure on the business even as the flagship Sunday paper was refreshed.
Content and Recognition in the 2010s
The paper's main focus remained the provision of county-wide regional news and a comprehensive sports service, supplemented by retail, leisure and lifestyle features and its jobs, cars and property sections. It continued to figure in industry recognition: at the inaugural Kent Press and Broadcasting Awards in 2015, Kent on Sunday was shortlisted for Kent Newspaper of the Year, alongside the Dover Express, Gravesend Messenger, Kent Messenger and Sevenoaks Chronicle, and its journalists Sarah Linney and Jamie Weir were shortlisted in the feature journalist and sports journalist categories. Trade coverage of its closure described it, in the words of Archant's chief executive, as one of the most revered regional newspapers in the country.
The Final Editor
The paper's last editor was Chris Britcher, who spent more than twelve years with Archant, including five as editor of Kent on Sunday, and for his final two and a half years combined the role with editing the Kentish Times series. Britcher's connection with the paper ran back to its award-winning early years, when he had been recognised as a sports journalist in its pages. After the closure he wrote a book-length account, penned during the pandemic, of what HoldtheFrontPage described as the vicious corporate battle behind the title's final period — a postscript that underlined how contested the paper's end had been inside the industry.
Closure in November 2017
On 10 November 2017 Archant announced that Kent on Sunday would close, with its last editions to appear over the weekend of 24 to 26 November 2017; the companion Kent News website closed too. In an email to staff, chief executive Jeff Henry wrote that the continuing decline in commercial revenues had had an adverse effect on the title, that it was no longer economically viable, and that buyers had been sought without success. He thanked the staff who had made it one of the country's most revered regional newspapers, said the company would aim to find roles for as many as possible elsewhere in Archant, and confirmed some redundancies. Kent Life magazine was not affected.
Britcher confirmed shortly afterwards that he had been made redundant, his last act being to see off the final edition. The three reporters who had worked on Kent on Sunday and the Kentish Times titles in Ashford were offered alternative employment at Archant's Barking office in East London but instead accepted jobs with the Kent Messenger Group. The closure ended KOS Media's Ashford operation: the Kentish Times series moved to Barking, fifty-six miles away, under a new editor, Lindsay Jones, while Kent on Saturday, the group's remaining weekend title, continued.
Legacy
Kent on Sunday's fifteen years trace the arc of the British free press in miniature: a free launch in 2002 that filled a genuine gap, national awards within a year of launch, rapid expansion into a county network of newspapers, television and magazines, a forced move to a part-paid model in the recession, absorption by a larger group, retrenchment, and finally closure when the advertising market would no longer support a county-wide Sunday staff. For much of that period it was Kent's only Sunday newspaper, and its twice-won title of Free Weekly Newspaper of the Year stands as the record of what Stannard's Smeeth start-up achieved before the economics of regional publishing closed in on it.
