The ''Reading Chronicle'' is a weekly newspaper covering Reading in

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 ...

, UK and surrounding areas, which began its life as the ''Berkshire Chronicle''. It is currently edited by Katie French, serving as group editor for its parent company

Newsquest Newsquest Media Group Ltd. is the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the United Kingdom. It is owned by the American mass media holding company Gannett. It has 205 brands across the UK, publishing online and in print ...

Berkshire & Buckinghamshire. The paper is published each Thursday with two editions: the ''Reading Chronicle'' and the ''Woodley and Earley Chronicle''. The paper switched to a compact,

tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft * ''Ta ...

format from a

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...

format in March 2009. Its supplements include the weekly entertainment section ''The Guide'' and monthly ''Business Review'' alongside the ''Property Chronicle''. It covers an area extending to Goring-on-Thames to the north,

Bucklebury Bucklebury is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England, about north-east of Newbury and north of the A4 road. The parish has a population of 2,116, but the village is much smaller. Bucklebury Common, with an area of over , is one ...

to the west, Mortimer to the south, and Twyford and Winnersh to the east.

Ownership history

The paper was owned by Trinity Mirror, now Reach plc, until it was purchased by Berkshire Media Group in 2007. The group's parent company Clyde and Forth Press, based in Scotland, went into receivership in 2012 and was taken over by management to become Romanes Media. This venture, named after Clyde and Forth Press' late owner Deirdre Romanes, was acquired by Newsquest in 2015.

Awards

In November 2021, the Chronicle won the Making A Difference title in the News Media Association's annual Journalism Matters awards, which highlight instances of news outlets having a positive influence on their communities. It was honoured for its Help Save Charlie campaign, which raised thousands of pounds towards private treatment for a young boy suffering from a rare brain tumour.

Controversy

In 2014, the Chronicle published a feature and front-page article alleging that hooliganism was a problem at Reading Football Club. The club's chairman Sir John Madejski suspended its links with the paper and criticised it as "an unwarranted and sensationalised attack which undermines everything our club tries to represent." The piece was also criticised for implying that the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...

was linked to hooliganism. The following week's edition apologised on its front page for both the depiction of Reading FC and the Hillsborough reference.

References

External links

* Newspapers published in Berkshire English-language newspapers Newspapers published by Newsquest Weekly newspapers published in the United Kingdom {{England-newspaper-stub