The ''Henley Standard'' is a weekly

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 ...

based in

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is published by Higgs Group and is one of only a few independently-owned local newspapers in the UK. It is also the only newspaper dedicated entirely to Henley and the surrounding villages. The ''Standard'' covers Henley town and an area of

south Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a planned move to Didcot, the district's largest town. The a ...

as far as Watlington,

Benson Benson may refer to: Animals *Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain Places Geography Canada *Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality *Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet United Kingdom * Benson, Oxfordshire ...

and

Goring-on-Thames Goring-on-Thames (or Goring) is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about south of Wallingford and northwest of Reading. It had a population of 3,187 in the 2011 census, put at 3,335 in 2019. Goring ...

, as well as Caversham and

Wargrave Wargrave () is a historic village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The village is primarily on the River Thames but also along the confluence of the River Loddon and lies on the border with southern Oxfordshire. The village has many old ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

and the

Hambleden Hambleden is a small village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. The village is around west of Marlow, and around north-east of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. The civil parish also includes the villages of Fingest and ...

valley in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. The paper's circulation is about 10,000 copies a week and it claims a readership of about 35,000.Henley Business Awards 2007
Its current owner is John Luker and the editor is Simon Bradshaw, who joined in 2008 from the ''

London Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

''. The predecessor of the ''Henley Standard'', first published in 1885, was ''The Henley Free Press''. It became the ''Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard'' in 1892. Its name was shortened in 1956 to the ''Henley Standard''. The ''Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard'' was the first organ to publish works by the author

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

. These were poems that the author, under his real name Eric Blair, wrote aged 10 on the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914 and also on the death of Lord Kitchener in 1916.

Awards

In 2019, the Henley Standard was the named the UK's best smaller paid-for weekly of the year in the Society of Editors' Regional Press Awards. It was praised for having "maintained its tradition of solid, in-depth reporting with a variety of news, features, diary items, investigations and campaigns."

References

External links

*
Henley Standard
' 1885 establishments in England Henley-on-Thames Newspapers published in Oxfordshire Publications established in 1885 South Oxfordshire District {{England-newspaper-stub