WORLD NEWS MEDIA DIRECTORY
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The Portsmouth News is the digital brand of The News, the only paid-for local newspaper and website serving Portsmouth and the surrounding area of south Hampshire. Founded in 1873 by Samuel Storey as the Portsmouth Evening News, it is one of Britain's oldest provincial dailies, and its website, portsmouth.co.uk, now carries the title's journalism to a digital audience far beyond its traditional print circulation. Published by National World — which itself came under the ownership of Media Concierge in 2025 — the title covers Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham, Havant, Waterlooville and parts of West Sussex from its base at the Technopole building in North End, Portsmouth.
The newspaper's history mirrors the broader story of the British regional press: more than a century of independent and then group ownership, a landmark purpose-built headquarters, the painful contraction of print, and a determined pivot to digital. Its former News Centre in Hilsea, home from 1969 until 2013 and one of the first sights greeting visitors to the city, was demolished in the 2020s after its printing presses fell silent — a potent symbol of the industry's transformation. Yet The News remains the principal chronicler of life in Britain's only island city, from the fortunes of Portsmouth Football Club to the affairs of the Royal Navy's home port.
The News was founded in 1873 by Samuel Storey, originally appearing as the Portsmouth Evening News. It established itself as the daily paper of record for the great naval port, chronicling the life of a city built around the dockyard through the late Victorian era, two world wars and the post-war decades. The title's longevity — more than 150 years of continuous publication — makes it one of the longest-running provincial newspapers in England.
For much of its history the paper was produced in the heart of the city. In 1969 it moved to the purpose-built News Centre in Hilsea, whose distinctive 1960s architecture became a landmark for generations of Portsmouth residents. The printing hall there served not only The News but newspapers across the local area and nationally for some 50 years. The editorial team relocated from the News Centre to offices at Lakeside in 2013, and later to the Technopole building at Kingston Crescent in North End, where the current publishers are based.
The print side of the operation changed hands several times in its final decades. The Hilsea print site passed from JPI Media Print Holdings to DMG Media (the Daily Mail's publisher) in 2020; DMG then proposed its closure, and the plant shut in 2022, meaning The News came to be printed hundreds of miles from its patch. The News Centre site was sold to the First Bus Company in March 2023 and the building was demolished, despite a campaign by the Twentieth Century Society to save it.
As the only paid-for local newspaper and website in Portsmouth, The News carries a particular responsibility: it is the primary professional newsroom covering a conurbation of several hundred thousand people. Its patch encompasses Portsmouth itself — the island city — together with Gosport, Fareham, Havant, Waterlooville and parts of West Sussex, an area defined by the naval base, the ferry port, the university and a dense urban coastal strip.
Coverage spans the full range of local journalism: Portsmouth City Council and neighbouring authorities, the courts, health services, education, business and development, alongside the cultural and community life of the area. Sport is a major pillar, with Portsmouth FC — the city's League club and a central institution of local identity — receiving intensive coverage, including through the former weekly sports paper The Sports Mail, which followed the club's fortunes.
The naval connection gives the title a distinctive beat found in few other local papers: the Royal Navy's presence at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, defence employment, and the comings and goings of the fleet are woven into the area's news in a way that reflects the city's identity as the home of the Senior Service.
The News is owned by National World, the regional publishing group created in 2020 by former newspaper executive David Montgomery. National World acquired the title in January 2021 when it bought JPI Media's news brands — the successor to Johnston Press, which had owned the paper since 1999 — in a £10.2 million deal. Johnston Press itself had taken the paper through a turbulent period of cost-cutting and asset-stripping that many former staff and readers felt devalued the product.
In 2025 National World came under new family ownership when the takeover by Media Concierge, valuing the group at £65 million, cleared its final legal hurdles and took effect after High Court approval. The deal made historic regional newsbrands including The Yorkshire Post, The Scotsman and Portsmouth's The News part of a privately owned business led by Malcolm Denmark and his family. The new owners pledged that, as a private company rather than a listed one accountable to shareholders, the business would not be focused on short-term results.
The title is produced by Portsmouth Publishing & Printing, and its commercial model combines print circulation revenue, print and digital advertising, and the growing digital audience of portsmouth.co.uk. Print circulation was recorded at 6,642 copies in 2023, a fraction of its historic levels — a decline driven by price rises and the migration of readers to digital and social platforms.
The News operates as a traditional local daily newsroom adapted to digital-first publishing. According to its corporate profile, the print edition is overseen by print editor Chris Broom with Kelly Brown as digital editor, reflecting the now-standard split between the newspaper and its website operation. The paper is printed Monday to Saturday in compact format.
Its journalism follows the classic local-paper template: breaking news, council and court reporting, campaigns, human-interest stories, sport and What's On, now published continuously online rather than held for the next day's edition. The digital operation emphasises speed and search visibility, while the print edition retains the curated, packaged character of a daily newspaper.
Like many regional titles, The News has had to balance the demands of digital scale — the volume publishing needed to sustain online advertising — with the trusted, community-rooted reporting that justifies its paid-for status. Its LinkedIn profile describes the mission simply: bringing trusted news to the Portsmouth area, a promise the title has made in various forms since 1877, the date the company gives for the start of its continuous service.
The News serves one of the most densely populated urban areas on the south coast. Its print edition sells thousands of copies across Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham, Havant and Waterlooville every day, though the audited circulation of 6,642 in 2023 illustrates how far print sales have fallen from the title's 20th-century heyday, when it was a sought-after employer for trainee journalists and photographers.
The digital audience at portsmouth.co.uk substantially exceeds the print readership, as is now typical across the regional press. The website, together with the title's social media channels, carries its journalism to readers who may never buy the paper — including the Portsmouth diaspora and the large student population of the city's university. The News describes itself as selling thousands of copies daily while maintaining a dedicated website and social media presence, a dual-platform footprint that defines the modern local title.
Portsmouth.co.uk represents the title's digital-first future: a continuously updated news website carrying breaking news, live blogs, video and interactive content alongside the full range of local coverage. The site's development has tracked the wider National World digital strategy, which has invested in shared platforms, newsletters and audience data across its portfolio of regional brands.
The newsroom's relocation history tells the digital story in physical form: from the great print halls of the Hilsea News Centre, through the Lakeside business park offices, to the Technopole building — each move reflecting a smaller print footprint and a newsroom reorganised around digital output. The closure of the Hilsea presses in 2022 completed the separation of the title from its own printing, with production contracted out, latterly to Newsquest under a deal covering National World's England and Scotland titles from late 2023.
Across 150 years, The News has chronicled the defining stories of the Portsmouth area: the life and decline of the Royal Dockyard, the city's naval heritage, the rise of the ferry port, major developments on the seafront and in the city centre, and the civic life of the island city. Its court and council reporting has held local power to account through successive political eras.
Sport has provided some of the title's most-read journalism. Portsmouth FC's dramatic journey — from Premier League club and FA Cup winners to administration, relegation to the fourth tier and the long climb back — was covered in exhaustive detail, with the weekly Sports Mail dedicated to the club and local sport. The emotional bond between the paper and the Pompey support is one of the title's defining relationships.
In recent years the paper has also had to cover the controversies of its own industry's decline locally: the proposed closure of the Hilsea print plant with its threat of significant job losses, and the eventual demolition of the much-loved News Centre building, both stories about the newspaper itself that it reported as local news.
As the only paid-for local paper in its area, The News occupies a unique civic position. Its campaigns, charity appeals and community reporting have been part of Portsmouth's public life for generations, and its journalists' presence at council meetings, courts and community events provides a level of scrutiny that no other single organisation replicates across the patch.
The affection in which the old News Centre was held — with residents recognising its 1960s architecture as one of the first landmarks seen on entering the city, and the Twentieth Century Society campaigning against its demolition — testifies to the depth of the title's roots in local identity. The paper's popular name, the Evening News, persists in everyday speech decades after it ceased to be an evening paper, a measure of how embedded the brand remains.
The title has also invested in its future audience through its digital channels, aiming to remain the first port of call for Portsmouth news for generations who have never bought a physical newspaper. Its journalists continue to staff the patch daily, covering everything from breaking incidents to the slow-burn stories of regeneration and public services.
The most significant recent development for the title has been the 2025 change of ultimate ownership, with Media Concierge's £65 million takeover of National World bringing The News into private family ownership. The new owners' pledge to build lasting value rather than chase short-term results was welcomed in an industry exhausted by successive rounds of leveraged corporate ownership — The News has now had four owners in little over five years.
Operationally, the title continues to adapt to the post-print-hall era: printed under contract, produced from the Technopole offices, and increasingly defined by its digital output at portsmouth.co.uk. The challenge facing The News is the one facing the entire regional press — converting digital reach into sustainable revenue while preserving the trusted local journalism that has defined the brand since Samuel Storey's day. Its 150-year history suggests a resilience that few local institutions can match.
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