The ''Kentish Gazette'' is a weekly newspaper serving the city of
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
. It is owned by
KM Group
KM Media Group is a multimedia company in the county of Kent, England which originated as the publisher of the Kent Messenger. The Group now produces local newspapers, radio stations and websites throughout the county. Iliffe Media acquired KM ...
and published on Thursdays. It's Canterbury and Whitstable editions are the only local papers covering that area.
History
The newspaper claims to be the second oldest surviving newspaper in the United Kingdom.
It was founded by
James Simmons in 1768 and, after a few weeks' competition, merged with its older rival,
George Kirkby's ''
Kentish Post'' which had been founded in 1717 and was the 28th known regional newspaper to be produced.
[R. M. Wiles, ''Freshest advices : early provincial newspapers in England'', Ohio State University Press, 1965, p. 397.]
The merged paper continued in existence as the ''Kentish Gazette'' under the joint management of Simmons and Kirkby.
[David J. Shaw and Sarah Gray, ‘James Abree (1691? – 1768) : Canterbury’s first "modern" printer’, in: ''The Reach of print : Making, selling and reading books'', ed. P. Isaac and B. McKay, Winchester, St Paul’s Bibliographies, 1998. Pp. 21–36. ]
In 1942 the Gazette's offices in Canterbury were destroyed by a
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
raid on the city. The paper was able to use the ''
Kent Messenger's'' offices in
Maidstone
Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...
to produce that week's copy of the newspaper.
The Gazette, through a number of mergers and acquisitions, took control of other newspapers in the area such as the ''
Whitstable Gazette'', ''
Herne Bay Gazette'' and ''
East Kent Mercury'', all of which were owned by Kent County Newspapers. KCN was taken over by the Kent Messenger Group in 1980.
Along with the rest of the KM-owned papers, the ''Gazette'' was given a design overhaul in May 2005.
Kentish Gazette (1).JPG, Masthead, 1768
Kentish Gazette (6).JPG, The Invicta, 1850
Kentish Gazette (7).JPG, Advertisement, 1876
Offices
Until 2008, the ''Kentish Gazette'' was based in Canterbury's city centre, sharing office space with its sister radio station
KMFM Canterbury. The demands of a radio station and a newspaper were becoming too big for the building, so in September 2008 the ''Gazette'' and the sales team for KMFM Canterbury were moved to a newly built office building just outside Whitstable.
Circulation
The paper's circulation as of the first half of 2009 is 14,571.
This represented a drop of 12.8% against the same time the previous year.
References
External links
''Kentish Gazette'' homepage{{Authority control
KM Group newspapers
Newspapers published in Kent
Publications established in 1768
Culture in Canterbury
Weekly newspapers published in the United Kingdom
1768 establishments in England