The ''Fitzrovia News'' is a free community

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 ...

produced by volunteers living and working in

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia ( ) is a district of central London, England, near the West End. Its eastern part is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urbanised in ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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 ...

. It is an example of what has been called

hyperlocal media Hyperlocal (also reckoned Hyper-local) is an adjective used to describe something as being "limited to a very small geographical area", and in particular, to anything " tremely or excessively local", in particular with regard to media output ai ...

community journalism Community journalism is locally-oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news. If it covers wider topics, community ...

. It is notable because it is "one of the country's oldest community newspapers". It is a non-profit news media published by the Fitzrovia Community Newspaper Group, with support from central London charity the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association as part of its charitable work. The ''Fitzrovia News'' was originally called ''The Tower'' and was started by a group of community activists in April 1973 in response to threats to their

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

from building developers and the loss of housing. The name Tower was a reference to the

Post Office Tower The BT Communications Tower, also known simply as the BT Tower, is a grade II listed communications tower in Fitzrovia, London, England, owned by BT Group. It has also been known as the GPO Tower, the Post Office Tower, and the Telecom Tower. ...

now the

BT Tower The BT Communications Tower, also known simply as the BT Tower, is a Listed building, grade II listed Radio masts and towers, communications tower in Fitzrovia, London, England, owned by BT Group. It has also been known as the GPO Tower, the P ...

which stands near the geographic heart of the neighbourhood. ''The Tower'' was produced from the flat of Judith Thomas, a local resident. The paper was renamed ''Fitzrovia News'' in 1980 when it was produced by the Fitzrovia Community Newspaper Group from the recently established Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Centre. The printed paper is produced four times a year. It is left at distribution points in the London neighbourhood of Fitzrovia. The website is updated more frequently and the editors produce a monthly email newsletter to subscribers. Like many hyperlocal media, the Fitzrovia News makes extensive use of freely available digital media:

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

software

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

and

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

, and

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

. ''Fitzrovia News'' covers all aspects of life in Fitzrovia with news and features about housing, business, environment, people, events, history and culture. "It has pursued stories about the impact of rising property prices and local hospital workers losing their homes, and submitted freedom of information requests to the local council." Until April 2020 the newspaper was led by editor Mike Pentelow, an author and former trade union journalist.Mavericks, misfits, murderers and manslaughterers. By DJ Taylor, The Independent, 7 January 2002, accessed 21 February 2011
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References

External links

* {{Newspapers in London Media and communications in the London Borough of Camden Media and communications in the City of Westminster London newspapers Local mass media in England Fitzrovia