The Wetherby News

About The Wetherby News

The Wetherby News is a local weekly newspaper published on Thursdays in the market town of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England. Founded in 1859, it is one of the older continuously published weeklies in Yorkshire, and it serves a patch that stretches from the town itself across Tadcaster, Boston Spa and Sherburn-in-Elmet, from rural North Yorkshire to the northern suburbs of Leeds. Now a tabloid title in the National World stable, it combines hard local news with a large property supplement, entertainment guides and full classified listings, and its website at wetherbynews.co.uk carries the paper's journalism between editions.

Founded by Henry Crossley in 1859

The Wetherby News was founded in 1859, with its first offices on the High Street next to the Angel Inn. Its founder was Henry Crossley, a man whose working life began humbly as an errand boy employed by the Reverend Raby before he rose to establish the town's newspaper. Crossley's achievement is commemorated in Wetherby's parish church of St James, where a stained-glass window installed in 1940 by the Leeds firm of Kayell and Reed was dedicated to his memory as the founder of the Wetherby News. The archive record shows the paper's earliest mastheads as the Wetherby News and West Yorkshire Agricultural Gazette of 1857 to 1862 and the Wetherby News and Central Yorkshire Journal of 1877 to 1889, reflecting its deep roots in the farming country of the Wharfe valley.

A Victorian campaigning paper

The young newspaper quickly found its campaigning voice. In the 1860s the Wetherby News threw itself behind one of its first major causes: the campaign to link Wetherby to Leeds by railway. The paper pressed the case for the Cross Gates to Wetherby line, construction of which was begun by the North Eastern Railway in 1866, leading to the building of a new railway station on Linton Road. The episode set a template for the paper's journalism that has endured: identifying the town's needs and campaigning for them in print. Later generations of the paper would run appeals and campaigns on subjects from CCTV for the town centre to fundraising for civic projects.

Offices on Westgate and the move to Harrogate

For much of its history the paper was produced from offices in the town it served. The Wetherby News long had its offices on Westgate in Wetherby, a central location that kept its reporters close to the shops, council offices and courts they covered. In more recent years, as the economics of the regional press drove consolidation, production moved out of the town, and the newspaper is now produced from Harrogate, some twelve miles to the north-west. The move mirrored a wider pattern across the British local press, in which historic town-centre offices were closed and titles were produced from regional hubs.

Ownership: Ackrill Media Group and National World

The Wetherby News is owned by the Ackrill Media Group and sits within the wider National World stable of regional titles, the successor to Johnston Press. Ackrill Media Group, the Harrogate-based publisher, has long been the paper's proprietor, and its group editor has overseen the title alongside sister papers in the region. The consolidation of the provincial press into a small number of large groups has shaped the paper's modern history, but the Wetherby News has retained its distinct masthead, its Thursday publication day and its fiercely local identity throughout successive changes of corporate ownership.

From broadsheet to tabloid

In 2012 the Wetherby News underwent the most visible change in its modern history when it converted from broadsheet to tabloid format. At the same time it moved its publication day from Friday to Thursday, a switch designed to get the paper onto newsagents' shelves and through letterboxes earlier in the weekend cycle. The tabloid relaunch was part of a wider modernisation of the title's look and feel, while its editorial mix of news, sport, property and entertainment was carried over into the new format.

The patch: from the Wharfe valley to north Leeds

The paper's news and sport patch is one of the more varied in West Yorkshire. At its heart are Wetherby itself, the historic bridge town on the Great North Road, together with Tadcaster, famous for its breweries, Boston Spa and Sherburn-in-Elmet. Beyond that core, the paper's reporters cover stories from rural North Yorkshire down to parts of urban north Leeds, including Slaid Hill, Alwoodley and Whinmoor. The patch straddles the boundary between the metropolitan district of Leeds and the countryside of North Yorkshire, giving the paper a readership that mixes commuters, market-town residents and farming communities.

Property, entertainment and classifieds

The Wetherby News has long been known for the weight of its supplements. It carries a large property supplement covering Wetherby and the surrounding districts, reflecting the area's buoyant housing market, and an in-depth weekend supplement. Its entertainment coverage includes a full weekly guide to what is on across West and North Yorkshire, with live music and cinema listings, while the classified pages remain a marketplace for the district's small ads. The combination of news, property and leisure content has made the Thursday edition a substantial read and a key advertising vehicle for local businesses.

Partnership with Tempo FM

The paper has extended its reach into broadcast through a partnership with Tempo FM, the community radio station serving Wetherby. Under the arrangement the Wetherby News provides a weekly news review every Friday morning, bringing the paper's stories to the station's listeners and giving the title a voice beyond the printed page. The collaboration is typical of the way local newspapers and community radio stations in Yorkshire have worked together to serve towns that sit outside the main broadcast centres.

Campaigns and community fundraising

Community campaigning has remained central to the paper's identity. The Wetherby News sponsored the maiden performance at the town's new bandstand, following its "Give the Band a Stand" appeal, which raised thousands of pounds towards the £50,000 cost of building it. The paper has also campaigned for CCTV in the town, joining forces with the local Member of Parliament to press the case after the town was shortlisted for camera funding. Such campaigns continue the tradition established in the 1860s, when the paper fought for the town's railway link, of using the paper's influence on behalf of Wetherby.

The town the paper serves — and its archive

Wetherby is an historic market town on the River Wharfe, straddling the old Great North Road, now the A1(M), between Leeds and York. Its wide market place, Georgian coaching inns and the riverside meadows of the Ings give it a distinctive character among West Yorkshire towns, and Wetherby Racecourse, on the town's western edge, is one of Yorkshire's best-known jump racing courses, drawing crowds from across the region. The town has grown substantially as a commuter settlement for Leeds and York, and the paper's journalism tracks that growth: new housing developments, the fortunes of the high street and the pressures on local services are regular themes in its pages.

The Wetherby News is part of the documentary record of Yorkshire held in the region's libraries and archives. Leeds Central Library's local and family history collection holds runs of the paper, ensuring that its reporting on the Wharfe valley remains available to researchers and family historians. The British Newspaper Archive and Findmypast have also digitised early editions, including the paper's nineteenth-century incarnations as the West Yorkshire Agricultural Gazette and the Central Yorkshire Journal, so that the Victorian campaigns and market reports of Henry Crossley's paper can still be read today.

The Wetherby News today

More than a century and a half after Henry Crossley set up his offices on the High Street, the Wetherby News continues to publish every Thursday for the town and its district. It has survived the closure of its Westgate offices, the broadsheet-to-tabloid conversion and the consolidation of the regional press, adapting its journalism to print and digital while keeping its focus on the streets, villages and suburbs of its patch. For the people of Wetherby, Tadcaster, Boston Spa and Sherburn-in-Elmet, it remains the paper that records their week: the council decisions, the court cases, the school achievements, the sporting triumphs and the small dramas of market-town life.

Visit the official website: wetherbynews.co.uk