The Ely Standard

About The Ely Standard

The Ely Standard is a weekly newspaper serving the cathedral city of Ely and the surrounding Fenland villages of Cambridgeshire. A long-established community title, it has recorded the life of one of England's smallest and most distinctive cities through decades of change, from its agricultural and market-town roots to its modern growth as a commuter city for Cambridge. It was for many years published by Archant, and since that group's takeover by Newsquest it has been part of one of Britain's largest regional publishing operations. Its website is elystandard.co.uk.

Ely is a city like no other in England: a former island in the Fens, raised above the drained marshes and crowned by its magnificent Norman cathedral, the "Ship of the Fens", visible for miles across the flat landscape. The Standard has been the city's paper through its transformation, and its archive is one of the fullest records of Fenland life in existence.

A Fenland community paper

The Ely Standard has always described itself as a genuine community newspaper, and its journalism reflects the character of its patch. Ely itself, with a population of around 20,000, is dominated by the cathedral and its close, by the riverside and the market place, and by the city's long associations with Oliver Cromwell — who lived in the city and whose house is now a museum — and with the eels that gave the city its name.

Beyond the city, the paper serves the Fenland villages: Soham, Littleport, Sutton, Haddenham, Witchford and the smaller settlements scattered across the black Fen soil. This is farming country — some of the most productive arable land in Britain — and the agricultural year, the drainage boards, the village shows and the parish councils are as much a part of the Standard's round as the city's civic life.

Ownership: Archant and the Newsquest takeover

For most of its modern history the Ely Standard was published by Archant, the Norwich-based regional group behind the Eastern Daily Press and dozens of weeklies across East Anglia. Within Archant it sat in the Herts & Cambs division alongside titles including the Cambs Times, the Wisbech Standard and the Royston Crow, sharing editorial resources and production across the region.

In 2022 Archant was taken over by Newsquest, the regional press giant whose parent company is the American media group Gannett. The takeover brought the Standard and its sister titles into one of the largest local publishing operations in Britain. Newsquest subsequently restructured its Cambridgeshire titles: the Cambs Times and the Wisbech Standard ceased print publication and became digital-only products, and editorial roles were combined across neighbouring weeklies — changes that ended an era for the Fenland press.

The 2007 redesign

In June 2007 the Ely Standard unveiled a comprehensive redesign, marking the occasion with an open day at its offices that drew more than 70 well-wishers. The new look included a new masthead — dropping the paper's blue background for a simpler black-on-white design — new typefaces throughout, and an increase in pagination from 40 to 56 pages, allowing for a higher story count, more picture spreads and weightier features.

Editor Debbie Davies said the redesign was a big step for a long-established paper in a traditional area, but that readers had responded well, finding the new paper cleaner and fresher. Guests at the open day included the town crier Avril Hayter-Smith, who announced the event to shoppers at the market, Archant chief executive John Fry and the local radio station Star FM. Davies said the paper prided itself on being a genuine community newspaper and that it was always a pleasure to meet readers and customers face to face — a philosophy that has defined the title throughout its history.

Editors and newsroom

The Standard's longest-serving recent editor was John Elworthy, who took charge around 2012 and also edited the Cambs Times and the Wisbech Standard. Elworthy, who had edited the Cambs Times since 2008, became one of the best-known figures in the Fenland press, raising the paper's profile locally even as print circulations declined nationally.

In December 2018 the City of Ely's mayor, Mike Rouse, paid a remarkable public tribute to Elworthy at the city council's annual dinner, describing him as a real journalist dedicated to sniffing out a story and exposing political shenanigans, but also committed to reflecting and telling the story of the community. Rouse revealed that when Elworthy had been appointed six and a half years earlier he had received what he called dark warnings about the new editor from Fenland colleagues — warnings he said had proved entirely misplaced. Elworthy handed over a cheque for £645 at the dinner, the proceeds of a raffle held during the Standard's annual business awards at Ely Cathedral. He left the paper in 2022 amid the Newsquest restructure, when his role was combined with that of a neighbouring weekly editor.

The Soham murders: the paper's hardest story

The Ely Standard is the local paper for Soham, and in August 2002 it found itself at the centre of one of the biggest news stories of the decade: the murders of ten-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. The paper was closely involved with the case from the start, and its newsroom had to deal with the world's media as hundreds of journalists descended on the small Fenland town.

Deputy editor Debbie Davies later described how the paper's staff coped with the unprecedented pressure — reporting a story that was unfolding in their own community while fending off the demands of the national and international press camped on their patch. When Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr stood trial at the Old Bailey, just 53 press seats were allocated to news organisations for the whole of the British media; the Standard was among the papers fighting to be there. The coverage remains the most harrowing chapter in the paper's history, and a demonstration of the unique burden carried by a local paper when tragedy strikes its own community.

Campaigns and community role

Beyond the great set-piece stories, the Standard has played the classic campaigning role of the weekly press. Its reporters have championed local causes, scrutinised East Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council, followed the debates over the city's growth — Ely has expanded significantly in recent decades, with major new housing developments — and recorded the civic life of the city: the cathedral's events, the markets and fairs, the schools' achievements and the sporting clubs' fortunes.

The paper's annual business awards, held at Ely Cathedral, became one of the highlights of the local commercial calendar, celebrating the enterprises of the city and the surrounding Fens. Its fundraising and community initiatives — from supporting the Disasters Emergency Committee's famine appeals to backing local charities — have been a constant thread of its journalism.

A new chapter: CambsNews

John Elworthy's departure from the Standard in 2022 produced an unexpected sequel. Within 48 hours of being made redundant by Newsquest, the veteran editor — who had spent 20 years with Archant — announced the launch of CambsNews.co.uk, a new independent online news platform for Cambridgeshire, founded with photographer Terry Harris. The site set out to offer responsible, well-researched news about everyday life in the county, covering politics, planning, housing, climate, environment and transport, explicitly independent of any major publisher.

The launch meant that Elworthy's new venture would compete directly with his former titles for stories — a striking coda to his two decades in the Fenland press, and a sign of how the upheavals of the regional press have spawned a new generation of independent local news operations.

Readership and audience

The Standard's readers are drawn from Ely and the Fenland villages, a patch with a strong sense of local identity rooted in the cathedral, the rivers and the farmed landscape. Like all paid-for weeklies, the paper has seen its print circulation decline as readers have moved online, but it retains a loyal core of weekly purchasers — the readers who, as one mayor put it, believe their local newspaper helps tell the story of their community.

The paper's website extends its reach to the Fenland diaspora and to the many newcomers who have moved to Ely as the city has grown, while its social media channels carry its stories to a wider audience across Cambridgeshire.

Digital presence

The Standard's website, elystandard.co.uk, publishes news, sport and features for the Ely area, carrying stories between print editions and reaching readers who may never pick up the paper itself. As part of Newsquest's digital operation, the site shares technology and infrastructure with hundreds of sister titles, while its content remains focused on the city and villages it has always served.

The paper is also active on social media, where its coverage of cathedral events, city developments and Fenland community life finds a wide audience. The combination of the weekly print edition and daily digital output reflects the modern shape of the title: a community newspaper adapting to new platforms while holding to its long-standing purpose.

Official website

The Ely Standard can be read online at elystandard.co.uk. The site carries the latest news from Ely and the surrounding villages, along with information on subscriptions, advertising and how to contact the newsroom.