Bristol Post

The ''Bristol Post'' is a city/regional five-day-a-week (formerly appearing six days per week) newspaper covering news in the city of Bristol, including stories from the whole of Greater Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It was titled the ''Bristol Evening Post'' until April 2012. The website was relaunched as BristolLive in April 2018. It is owned by Reach PLC, formerly known as Trinity Mirror.

History

The ''Evening Post'' was founded in 1932 by local interests, in response to an agreement between the two national press groups which owned the then two Bristol evening newspapers, Lord Rothermere, owner of the ''Bristol Evening World'', and Baron Camrose, owner of the ''Bristol Times and Echo''. Camrose had agreed to close his Bristol title in return for Rothermere's agreement to close his title in Newcastle, leaving Bristol with just one paper. Readers of the ''Times and Echo'' were instrumental in founding the ''Evening Post'', which carried the rubric "The paper all Bristol asked for and helped to create".

The ''Evening Post'' and ''Evening World'' competed strongly until 1935, when both titles were acquired by a new company, Bristol United Press (BUP), 40% owned by Lord Rothermere's interests and 60% owned by the ''Bristol Evening Post''. In 1960 BUP acquired the Bristol morning paper, the '' Western Daily Press'', and the weekly '' Bristol Observer''. In 1962 the ''Evening World'' ceased publication, leaving the ''Evening Post'' as Bristol's only evening paper. At that time the paper had a circulation of 160,000.

By 1990 David Sullivan, owner of the '' Sunday Sport'', had acquired an interest in the title, and unsuccessfully sought to acquire more shares. In 1998 Rothermere's Northcliffe Newspaper Group acquired the shares of the independent shareholders in BUP, making the title wholly owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. In 2006 Northcliffe made 36 staff redundant, and unsuccessfully sought a purchaser for the ''Bristol Evening Post'' and ''Western Daily Press''.

In May 2009 it was announced that the ''Post'', and sister paper the ''Western Daily Press'', would no longer be printed in Bristol, but at Northcliffe's central printing unit at Didcot in Oxfordshire. In January 2011 the press hall at its Temple Way headquarters was demolished.

In April 2012 the paper was renamed ''The Post'' (reflecting the fact that it has not been printed in the evening for some time) and in May 2012 the Saturday edition was scrapped, with the loss of 20 jobs.

An enhanced Friday edition was subsequently launched, including a magazine, ''The Weekend''.

In 2012, Local World acquired Northcliffe Media from Daily Mail and General Trust.

In October 2015 Trinity Mirror acquired the ''Bristol Post'' as part of its takeover of Local World titles.

In March 2018 its editor Mike Norton apologised on the paper's front page for a headline, 'Faces of evil', on the Wednesday 17 April 1996 front page showing 16 photos of black men jailed for dealing crack cocaine, which had led to a large proportion of the city boycotting the paper for many years. Norton wrote:

Former journalists

*Tom Stoppard (born 1937), playwright and screenwriter

References

External links

* (BristolLive)
''Bristol Evening Post'' Watch

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bristol Post, The
Northcliffe Media
Newspapers published in Bristol
Newspapers established in 1932
1932 establishments in England
Companies based in Bristol
Daily newspapers published in the United Kingdom