CN Group Limited was formerly an independent local media business based in

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

, England, operating in print and radio. It is now owned by Newsquest and their newspapers are printed in Glasgow. The company was formerly known as the Cumbrian Newspapers Group Ltd but changed its name to reflect the fact that is no longer primarily a newspaper publisher. One of its principal subsidiaries, however, is still known as Cumbrian Newspapers Ltd.

History

The company can trace its origins to the founding of the ''Carlisle Patriot'' newspaper in 1815, which eventually became the ''Cumberland News''. Historical copies of the ''Carlisle Patriot'', dating back to 1817, 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, ...

.Digitised copies of the ''Carlisle Patriot''
/ref>

Radio

Until 2017 CN Group owned two radio stations: Lancaster-based The Bay and

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of t ...

-based

Lakeland Radio Smooth Lake District is an Independent Local Radio station for the Lakes, owned and operated by Global and part of the Smooth network. Overview Originally known as Lakeland Radio, the station broadcasts from transmitters at Kendal on 100.1 ...

. In October 2017 it was announced that both had been sold to the UK media company

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

. The company formerly owned the Touch Radio Network stations in the Midlands outright until selling them to Quidem in June 2009. The two exceptions to this were the Loughborough licence,

Oak FM The New 107 Oak FM was a local radio station broadcasting in West Leicestershire and Nuneaton North Warwickshire, in the English Midlands. It was owned and operated by Quidem. History Launching on Wednesday 26 March 2008, the station was es ...

, which was sold to the

Lincs FM Group The Lincs FM Group was the parent company of several Independent Local Radio (ILR) stations. As of Q2 2019 the group had a combined audience of 524,000. It was based in Lincolnshire, in the UK. History The Lincs FM Group was formed in the earl ...

, and the Banbury Touch FM licence, which was sold to a private consortium and relaunched as

Banbury Sound Banbury Sound was an Independent Local Radio station serving the Banbury and Brackley areas of north Oxfordshire. At the time of closure, it was owned and operated by Quidem and broadcast from studios at Honiley, Warwickshire. History Banbury ...

. It quickly became apparent that operating these licences outside of the regional network was not a commercially sensible move. As a result, Quidem acquired Banbury Sound in 2010 and Oak FM in 2012, effectively reforming the original CN Midlands network. In September 2019, it was announced that Quidem, the station's current owners, were running at a financial loss and the business had entered into a brand-licensing agreement with

Global Radio Global Media & Entertainment Limited, trading as Global, is a British media company formed in 2007. It is the owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe having expanded through a number of historical acquisitions, including Chrys ...

. This change means that the Quidem group of stations will take one of Global's brands. At the beginning of October,

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

opened a consultation following Quidem's request for its six stations to make significant changes to their formats. CN previously owned

Mid FM Q Radio is a network of radio stations in Northern Ireland airing an adult contemporary format. The network is the fifth most listened to radio station in Northern Ireland, with a combined figure of over 241,000 listeners as of September 2022 ...

in Northern Ireland. CN also previously owned

Belfast CityBeat Q Radio (formerly known as Citybeat and Belfast CityBeat) is a Northern Irish radio station. It broadcasts to Greater Belfast on 96.7 MHz FM and on DAB Digital Radio across all of Northern Ireland. From 5 April 2007, Citybeat became avail ...

until January 2015 when it was sold to the

Q Radio Network Q Radio is a network of radio stations in Northern Ireland airing an adult contemporary format. The network is the fifth most listened to radio station in Northern Ireland, with a combined figure of over 241,000 listeners as of September 2022 ...

. They also had a shareholding in Carlisle-based CFM Radio, holding a further stake in neighbouring

Border Television ITV Border, previously Border Television and commonly referred to as simply Border, is the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 service provided by ITV (TV channel), ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Anglo-Scottish border, England/Scotland border region, ...

Titles

CN Group publishes daily and weekly newspapers and magazines for

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkc ...

and the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lot ...

. Since the takeover of the CN Group by Newsquest, it is now printed in Glasgow.

List of CN Group titles

Newspapers

*''24 - The North’s National'' – a weekday evening paper, launched 20 June 2016, closed 29 July 2016 *'' News and Star'' – daily evening paper circulated with separate East (except Friday and Sunday) and West (except Sunday) editions *'' North-West Evening Mail'' – daily paper circulated in Furness and other parts of south Cumbria *''The Cumberland News'' – weekly (Fridays) covering East Cumbria; separate Main and Late Final editions *''Cumbrian Gazette'' – weekly freesheet; separate editions for East and West Cumbria *''Whitehaven News'' – weekly (Thursdays) *''Times & Star'' – weekly (Fridays); separate

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Locat ...

, Maryport and

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...

editions *''Hexham Courant'' – weekly *''Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser'' – weekly (Thursdays) *''Advertiser'' – commercially selective postcode distributed weekly freesheet covering South Cumbria

Magazines

*''Cumbria Life'' - monthly *''Carlisle Living'' - monthly *''Dumfries & Galloway Life - monthly (covering Dumfries & Galloway and Scottish Borders); formerly ''DGB Life'' *''In Cumbria'' - quarterly * ''Events'' * ''Lakesman - yearly * ''The Bay - bimestrial lifestyle magazine dedicated to the unique communities of Morecambe Bay, UK; launched in June 2017

Printing

CN Group prints items such as newspapers (local and national), magazines and leaflets.

References

External links

How a Whitehaven newspaper led the world's media for a day, The Independent, 6 June 2010
{{CN Group Mass media in Cumbria Mass media in Scotland Radio broadcasting companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Carlisle, Cumbria