Coventry Evening Telegraph
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The ''Coventry Telegraph'' is a local English tabloid newspaper. It was founded as ''The Midland Daily Telegraph'' in 1891 by William Isaac Iliffe, and was
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
's first
daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
. Sold for half a penny, it was a four-page
broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
newspaper. It changed its name to the ''Coventry Evening Telegraph'' on 17 November 1941. On 2 October 2006, the ''Telegraph'' simply became the ''Coventry Telegraph'', reflecting its switch to a morning publication. The newspaper became a part of the then Mirror Group (prior to its merger with Trinity to become Trinity Mirror), in 1997. In April 2022, the publication had a paid daily circulation of just over 6,183 copies. Trinity Mirror is now known as Reach plc. Historical copies of the ''Coventry Telegraph'', dating back to 1914, are available to search and view in digitised form at the
British Newspaper Archive The British Newspaper Archive web site provides access to searchable digitized archives of British and Irish newspapers. It was launched in November 2011. History The British Library Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London, u ...
.Digitised copies of the ''Coventry Telegraph''
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History

The only day the newspaper was unable to publish was 15 November 1940, owing to the
blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...
raid on the city. From 1946 until the end of April 2004, a separate sports publication, ''The Pink'', was printed every Saturday evening. It provided coverage of sport from the Midlands, as well as national and international sport. The fortunes of
Coventry City F.C. Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed th ...
played a prominent role in ''The Pink. With the 1998-99 football season, ''The Pink'' became the first regional evening newspaper to provide same day reports from all FA Premiership matches. In 2016, ''Coventry Telegraph'' launched a new weekly podcast, centred around goings on at
Coventry City F.C. Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed th ...
, titled 'The Pink'. The headquarters for a significant period of the paper's history was at 157 Corporation Street, Coventry, CV1 1FP. The foundation stone was laid by the then proprietor, Lord Iliffe G.B.E, on 21 November 1957. In the 1970s, the ''Evening Telegraph'' had a regular consumer page called ''Watchdog'', which was edited by Ken Burgess. Coincidentally, the BBC used the same name for what became its long-running ''Watchdog'' series. In 1985, the local independent radio station (then known as
Mercia Sound la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...
) and the Telegraph formed the Snowball Appeal, a charitable organisation whose aim is to raise money to help sick and needy children in Coventry and
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
. After 96 years of ownership by the Illife Family, American
Ralph Ingersoll II Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...
bought the controlling interest of the Iliffe family's newspapers. However, in 1991, the managing director, Chris Oakley, led a management buy-out creating Midland Independent Newspapers. In 1997, Midland Independent Newspapers was sold for £297 million to Mirror Group. In 1999, Mirror Group merged with the regional newspaper group Trinity. From 2 October 2006, the publication changed from an evening paper to a morning paper. To reflect this change, the newspaper's name changed to ''Coventry Telegraph''. The switch to a morning paper saw a change in emphasis with the printed edition concentrating on exclusive and community news, leaving breaking news to its website. In the summer of 2012, the paper moved its headquarters to Thomas Yeoman House at Coventry Canal Basin, in Leicester Row. The decision by the proprietors was a consequence of the changing patterns of work at the paper (and the industry in general). With the number of staff reduced and no longer needing the space for the discontinued printing presses, it was decided that a smaller, more modern headquarters was now necessary. In May 2017 the Corporation Street site was opened to the public so they could view it almost as it had been left when it closed. When the exhibition ends in July 2018 Complex Developments Ltd hope to turn the buildings into a 100-bed
hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
. In the summer of 2014, the newspaper began a social media campaign entitled #bringCityhome, which helped ensure
Coventry City F.C. Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed th ...
's return to the city following their exile at
Sixfields Sixfields is an area of Northampton, Northamptonshire, England about west of the town centre along the A4500 St James Road and Weedon Road towards M1 junction 16 about further west. It is close to the Duston, Upton and St James areas o ...
in Northampton. The campaign drew praise from national media and figures within the football world. It was shortlisted at the Press Gazette British Journalism Awards 2014 in the Campaign of the Year category and Simon Gilbert, who spearheaded the campaign, was nominated for Sports Journalist of the Year.


Editors


Current editor

The current editor of the ''Coventry Telegraph'' and CoventryLive is Adam Moss. He has been in post since September 2020, joining from Reach PLC Midlands, where he had taken over from former editor Graeme Brown, who left to pursue his new job as the editor of the Birmingham Live website. As well as serving as editor of Coventry Telegraph, Moss also serves as editor for Reach's main Leicestershire-based daily title, the
Leicester Mercury The ''Leicester Mercury'' is a British regional newspaper for the city of Leicester and the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The paper began in the 19th century as the ''Leicester Daily Mercury'' and later changed to its pre ...
and their digital news brand, LeicestershireLive.


Past editors

Below is an ''incomplete list'' of editors of the ''Coventry Telegraph'' and ''Coventry Evening Telegraph'': * Eric Ivens (1960–1973) * Keith Whetstone (1974–1980) * Geoffrey Elliot (1980–1990) * Neil Benson (1991–1993) * Dan Mason (1995–?) * Alan Kirby (1998–2008) * Dave Brookes (2009) * Darren Parkin (2009–12) * Alun Thorne (2012–14) * Keith Perry (2015–19) * Graeme Brown (2019–20) * Adam Moss (2020–present)


Publisher

Coventry Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Reach PLC Midlands Ltd is the publisher of the Telegraph and a number of local publications.


Editions

''The Telegraph'' is published Monday to Saturday in the following editions: * City (Coventry Telegraph) * Nuneaton (Nuneaton Telegraph) * Warwickshire (Warwickshire Telegraph)


Sister publications

Current: * ''
The Hinckley Times ''The Hinckley Times'' is a weekly paid-for tabloid newspaper which is distributed every Wednesday and mainly serves the area of Hinckley. The paper further serves the surrounding areas in Leicestershire, including Market Bosworth, Coalville and L ...
'' * '' The Loughborough Echo'' Former: * '' The Bedworth Echo'' (closed 2009) * ''The Coventry Times'' (formerly ''The Coventry Citizen'') (closed 2015) * ''Coventry Pink'' (closed 2004) * '' The Hinckley Herald & Journal'' (closed 2011) * ''The
Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Warwick (district), Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a ...
,
Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...
&
Royal Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...
Times'' (formerly ''The Kenilworth Citizen'') (closed 2011) * ''Midland Farm Ad'' (now closed) * ''The Nuneaton Tribune'' (closed 2015) * ''The
Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...
Times'' (closed 2009)


References


External links


''Coventry Telegraph'' website''The Hinckley Times'' websiteThe ''Loughborough Echo'' websiteTrinity Mirror Midlands websiteTrinity Mirror website
{{UK regional daily newspapers Newspapers published in the West Midlands (county) Publications established in 1891 Reach plc 1891 establishments in England Organisations based in Coventry Daily newspapers published in the United Kingdom