Scunthorpe Telegraph

About Scunthorpe Telegraph

The Scunthorpe Telegraph is the local paid-for newspaper for Scunthorpe and North Lincolnshire. Launched on 8 September 1937, it served the steel town as a daily newspaper for 74 years before becoming a weekly on 18 August 2011. Owned by Reach plc and published as part of the Grimsby Scunthorpe Media Group, it covers one of England's great industrial towns — a place built on iron and steel — with a weekly print edition and a digital presence through grimsbytelegraph.co.uk and the ScunthorpeLive brand.

History and Founding

Before the Scunthorpe Telegraph's launch, the town was served by the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, published some twenty miles away on the coast. The launch of a dedicated Scunthorpe paper on 8 September 1937 gave the fast-growing steel town a voice of its own. The paper's very first front page, reproduced for its 70th anniversary, carried headlines such as "Scunthorpe fatality presents strange identity problem" and "Duke of Windsor visits Budapest", alongside the Grimsby fish market prices — a reminder of the paper's coastal parentage.

Scunthorpe in 1937 was a town transformed by steel. The Appleby-Frodingham works dominated the skyline and the local economy, drawing workers from across Britain, and the Telegraph grew up chronicling an industrial community: shift patterns and strikes, new housing estates, the schools and clubs of a town built almost from scratch around its furnaces.

The 70th Anniversary

In 2007 the paper celebrated its 70th anniversary with a specially produced supplement, an exhibition and an open day. The 12-page supplement looked back at the major stories covered since the 1937 launch, including the explosion at the chemical plant near Scunthorpe in 1974 which killed 28 people. It carried messages from editor Jane Manning and managing director Steve Hollingsworth, a letter of congratulations from the Queen, and articles by long-serving sports editor Bob Steels and features writer Hazel Tomlins. An exhibition, 70 Years of Scunthorpe Telegraph, ran for a month at the North Lincolnshire Museum in Oswald Road, featuring photographs of major events and front pages from seven decades. In her anniversary message, Manning said the paper was immensely proud to have represented the local area for 70 years, describing it as a trusted local newspaper with a loyal readership whose position at the heart of the community was unrivalled.

Ownership and Publishing

The Scunthorpe Telegraph and the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, with their associated websites, became the Grimsby Scunthorpe Media Group in 2007. In 2012 Local World acquired the papers' owner, Northcliffe Media, from the Daily Mail and General Trust; Local World was subsequently bought by Trinity Mirror, which rebranded as Reach plc in 2018. The paper's editor in recent years has been Jamie Macaskill, following earlier editors including Jane Manning, Mel Cook and David Atkin, with a reporting team covering news, sport and features across North Lincolnshire.

The Switch from Daily to Weekly

The final edition of the Daily Scunthorpe Telegraph was printed on 12 August 2011, and the paper became a weekly from 18 August 2011, appearing each Thursday. The decision, taken by Northcliffe Media as part of a strategy to secure the paper's long-term sustainability, was presented as an investment in the future: a 140-page weekly offering the most comprehensive package of news, sport, features, jobs, homes, cars and local information. Editor Mel Cook said the move reflected changes in readers' lives — people no longer had time to read a newspaper every day, but still wanted to know what was happening in their area, still wanted to know about the issues affecting their lives, and still wanted the Telegraph to campaign on their behalf. As the paper's reporters noted at the 80th anniversary, the title had travelled from a nightly broadsheet with racing results in the Stop Press, through daily broadsheet and tabloid, to the weekly tabloid of today.

Headquarters

In December 2007 the paper moved from its home of fifty years to new premises at Park Square, a £300,000 investment by the newspaper and its parent company Northcliffe that safeguarded 70 jobs and was described as a gesture of faith in the future of the newspaper and the town. The paper's postal address in recent years has been Sovereign House, Arkwright Way, Scunthorpe. Like many Reach titles, its journalists have increasingly worked flexibly, with the digital operation centred on the ScunthorpeLive brand and the X account @ScunthorpeLive.

Coverage Area and Readership

The Telegraph serves Scunthorpe — "Sunny Scunny" to its readers — and the surrounding towns and villages of North Lincolnshire, including Brigg, Barton-upon-Humber, Epworth, Crowle and the Isle of Axholme. It is a patch defined by the steelworks, by the Humber estuary and by the agricultural land of the Ancholme valley. Audited circulation for 2025 stood at 2,116, reflecting the industry-wide decline of print, while the digital audience through the Grimsby Telegraph website's Scunthorpe section reaches far more readers each day. The paper's newsdesk remains the first point of contact for North Lincolnshire stories, and its reporters — covering news, sport and features — continue the tradition of community journalism that has defined the title since 1937.

Editorial Content and Sections

Steel is the great theme of the paper's journalism: the fortunes of the Scunthorpe works, now under British Steel, have shaped the town's destiny for a century, and the Telegraph has covered every investment, closure threat and rescue with the attention the story demands. Scunthorpe United — the Iron — command devoted sports coverage, alongside the town's rugby, cricket and athletics clubs. The courts, North Lincolnshire Council, the NHS and education provide the hard-news spine, while the weekly edition carries the property, motors, jobs and family announcements that remain the lifeblood of the local press.

Digital Presence

The paper's online home is the Scunthorpe section of grimsbytelegraph.co.uk, reflecting its history within the Grimsby Scunthorpe Media Group, alongside the ScunthorpeLive branding on social media. The site breaks news through the day, carries live blogs for major stories and Scunthorpe United matches, and hosts the public notices, tributes and announcements that have migrated online. The newsdesk can be reached at newsdesk@scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk, and the paper maintains an active presence on X as @ScunthorpeLive.

Campaigns and Community Role

The Telegraph has long seen campaigning as central to its mission. Its editors have repeatedly pledged that the paper will campaign on readers' behalf — on the future of the steelworks, on road safety, on health services and on town-centre regeneration. The 80th anniversary reunion held at the Wortley House Hotel in September 2017, organised by reporter Nick Cole, brought together past and present staff to celebrate a title that has, as Cole put it, undergone many changes in eighty years while remaining proud of its place in the town. The paper's charity appeals and community awards continue that tradition of civic engagement.

Legacy and Place in Lincolnshire Journalism

For nearly ninety years, the Scunthorpe Telegraph has been the steel town's paper — through the post-war boom, the industrial strife of the 1970s and 80s, the privatisations and rescues of the steel industry, and the digital revolution that ended its life as a daily. From the nightly broadsheet of 1937 to the weekly tabloid and the ScunthorpeLive website of today, it has remained what its 70th-anniversary editor called it: a trusted local newspaper with a loyal readership, at the heart of the community it serves.