The ''Hemel Hempstead Gazette & Express'' is a

local newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 poli ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

that covers the towns of

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located north-west of London; nearby towns and cities include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 cens ...

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the River Bulbourne, Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which ...

and

Tring Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked ...

and the surrounding area in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

History

It was first published in 1858 as ''The Hemel Hempstead Gazette and West Herts Advertiser'', this was renamed in 1899 as ''The Hertfordshire, Hemel Hempstead Gazette and West Herts Advertiser'' and it was published under this title until 1973. From 1973 it was known simply as the ''Hemel Hempstead Gazette'', and from 1991 as ''The Gazette''. The paper generated two sibling titles, the ''Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette'' and a

free newspaper Free newspapers are distributed Gratis versus libre, free of charge, often in central places in cities and towns, on public transport, with other newspapers, or separately door-to-door. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising. T ...

, ''Herald Express'', all of which come from the same offices. In May 2017, the ''Gazettes parent company

Johnston Press Johnston Press plc was a multimedia company founded in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1767. Its flagship titles included UK-national newspaper the '' i'', ''The Scotsman'', the ''Yorkshire Post'', the ''Falkirk Herald'', and Belfast's ''The News Letter'' ...

merged the three titles into on single newspaper, the ''Hemel Hempstead Gazette & Express''. The paper covers a range of local stories, including reports about crime and violence, planning applications affecting

green belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...

land, stories related to the killer clown craze and film premieres. In 2005, the Newspaper Society praised the ''Hemel Hempstead Gazette'' for its coverage of the Buncefield oil depot explosion. In 2014, the ''Gazette'' covered a local controversy about the proposed construction of a

Lidl Lidl ( ) is a trademark, used by two Germany, German international discount supermarket, discount retailer chain store, chains that operates over 12,600 stores. The ''LD Stiftung'' operates the stores in Germany and the ''Lidl Stiftung & Co. K ...

supermarket in Berkhamsted. The public debate attracted attention from national media such as the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' and was featured on an edition of ITV London News. In 2018, the ''Gazette'' was reprimanded by the Independent Press Standards Organisation for a news item on its ''Hemel Today'' website which falsely reported that a former mayor of Dacorum Borough Council had committed suicide after suffering from the effects of the

menopause Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time when Menstruation, menstrual periods permanently stop, marking the end of the Human reproduction, reproductive stage for the female human. It typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 5 ...

. The story related to another woman of the same name, and the ''Gazette'' apologised to the former mayor.

Publication, production and ownership

The ''Hemel Hempstead Gazette & Express'' is part of Premier Newspapers Ltd which itself is part of the

group of local newspapers. It is printed in Sheffield. It is published on Wednesdays. The ''Gazettes website is published under the title ''Hemel Today'', with archives going back to 1990, with corresponding

mirror website Mirror sites or mirrors are replicas of other websites. The concept of mirroring applies to network services accessible through any protocol, such as HTTP or FTP. Such sites have different URLs than the original site, but host identical or near-id ...

s entitled ''Berkhamsted Today'' and ''Tring Today''. Previously, about 10 people worked in the editorial department which was based at Newspaper House, 39 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP1 1LH. In January 2014 Johnston Press closed the ''Gazette'' office, and the editorial staff are now

remote work Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of work (human activity), working at or from one's home or Third place, another space rather than from ...

ers. The ''Gazettes paper

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

is now held by the Dacorum Heritage Trust which has refused the newspaper access to its own archives.

References

External links

Readership report for Hemel Hempstead Gazette
at JICREG, Retrieved November 2009
Archive of 'Gazzer' Cartoons, featuring the Hemel Hempstead Gazette's mascot dog.''The Hemel Hempstead Gazette and West Herts Advertiser'' (1872–1891) on The British Newspaper Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemel Hempstead Gazette and Express Newspapers published in Hertfordshire Companies based in Dacorum Hemel Hempstead Newspapers established in 1867 1867 establishments in England Newspapers published by Johnston Press