The ''Shropshire Star'' is reputedly the twelfth biggest-selling regional newspaper in the UK. It is based at Grosvenor House,

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in the same direction. With an est ...

where it covers the whole of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

plus parts of

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

and Mid Wales. It is printed by Newsquest at their Deeside office. Currently edited by Martin Wright, the ''Shropshire Star'' publishes one edition on Monday through Saturday. In the first half of 2012, the newspaper had a daily circulation of 49,751 but ten years later paid print circulation had declined by more than three quarters to 10,815 (Jan-June 2022). The ''Shropshire Star'' has been under the continuous ownership of the Graham/Meier family almost since its inception. The family controls the publication through their equity stake in

Midland News Association Midland News Association (also known as MNA Media) is Britain’s largest independent regional news company. It publishes the UK's biggest-selling regional daily newspaper the ''Express & Star'' and its sister title the ''Shropshire Star'', as ...

(MNA), which also owns the ''

Express & Star The ''Express & Star'' is a regional evening newspaper in Britain. Founded in 1889, it is based in Wolverhampton, England, and covers the West Midlands county and Staffordshire. Currently edited by Martin Wright, the ''Express & Star'' publish ...

'' newspaper.

History

The ''Shropshire Star'' has been in circulation since Monday 5 October 1964, inheriting a nightly circulation of around 19,000 from the old Shropshire edition of the ''

''. The

board saw an opportunity with the growth of Dawley New Town - later renamed

- and produced a successful news and advertising product to serve a county which is a mixture of agriculture and industrial areas. The ''Shropshire Star'' later became the first evening newspaper in Europe to use web-fed

offset printing Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on t ...

, which refers to the use of rolls (or webs) of paper supplied to the printing press.

Online media

The ''Shropshire Star'' publishes breaking news and sport content online each day, in addition to regular blogs and unique video content. Its website, shropshirestar.com, was launched in 1997. A ''Shropshire Star'' App for

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

and iPhone was launched in January 2012, using page-turning technology to mimic the look and feel of the actual newspaper. August 2012 saw the website re-launched in a responsive web design alongside its sister title expressandstar.com – believed to be the first of any other regional newspaper websites in the UK. The website also offers free access to the weekly ''Chronicle'' and ''Journal'' series. By 2015, the term ''Shropshire Star'' was being inputted into search engines more than 200,000 times per calendar month, which made it the most popular search string with the word ''Shropshire'' in the request.

Editors

* Keith Parker (1972–1977) * Robert Jones (1977–1991) * Warren Wilson (1992–1994) * Andy Wright (1994–1998) * Adrian Faber (1998–2001) * Sarah-Jane Smith (2001–2011) * Keith Harrison (2011–2013) * Martin Wright (2013–present)

Notable journalists

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' an ...

- wrote his first motoring articles for this paper. He recalled: "I started small, on the Shropshire Star with little

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

s and Fiats and worked my way up to Ford Granadas and Rovers, until, after about seven years, I was allowed to drive an

Aston Martin Lagonda The Aston Martin Lagonda is a full-size luxury four-door saloon manufactured by British manufacturer Aston Martin between 1974 and 1990. A total of 645 were produced. The name was derived from the Lagonda marque that Aston Martin had purchas ...

." This recalls information given by him in his last column for ''Top Gear'' magazine prior to his dismissal by the BBC.

Editions

* Three different editions: Telford (Last), Shrewsbury, and rural Shropshire and Mid Wales.

References

External links

* {{UK regional daily newspapers Newspapers published in Shropshire Mass media in Shropshire Publications established in 1964 1964 establishments in England Daily newspapers published in the United Kingdom