{{Short description|Newspaper in Shrewsbury, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = Shrewsbury Chronicle | image = Shrewsbury Chronicle logo.jpg | image_size = 200px | type = Weekly newspaper<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/tag/shrewsbury-chronicle/ |title=Shrewsbury Chronicle - UK media directory from |publisher=HoldtheFrontPage |date= |accessdate=2014-07-23}}</ref> | circulation = 25,521 | circulation_date = 2022 | circulation_ref = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.org.uk/product/8675 |title= Shrewsbury Chronicle |publisher=Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK) |date=22 February 2023 |access-date=10 May 2023}}</ref> | founded = 23 November 1772 | owners = Midland News Association | headquarters = 7 Bellstone,<br>Shrewsbury,<br> SY1 1HU | editor = Caroline Jones | website = [http://shrewsburychronicle.com/ shrewsburychronicle.com] }}
The '''''Shrewsbury Chronicle''''' is a local news newspaper in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It is one of the oldest weekly newspapers in the United Kingdom, publishing its first edition in 1772.<ref name="Spectator">{{cite news |title=The Shrewsbury Chronicle, 1772-1922 |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/16th-december-1922/26/the-shrewsbury-chronicle-1772-1922 |accessdate=23 October 2018 |work=The Spectator |date=19 December 1922 |quote=We congratulate that good old country paper, the Shrewsbury Chronicle, on completing its hundred and fiftieth year. It is a few weeks younger than the Morning Post, having first appeared on November 28rd,1772, as the Shrewsbury Chronicle; or, Wood's British Commercial Pamphlet. Thomas Wood,- the publisher, had had experience of a Birmingham weekly before he went to Shrewsbury.}}</ref>
It is printed on Wednesday evening and is on sale or distributed on Thursday. It covers Shrewsbury and the surrounding area, including Church Stretton.
The editor of the ''Shrewsbury Chronicle'' is Caroline Jones, who took over from Leon Burakowski in 2020. The newspaper is published by the independently owned Midland News Association.<ref name="HFP">{{cite news |title=Weekly editor and journalism MBE made redundant |url=https://www.societyofeditors.org/soe-news/02-february-2009/Weekly-editor-and-journalism-MBE-made-redundant |accessdate=23 October 2018 |work=Hold the Front Page |publisher=Society of Editors}}</ref>
==History== Founded by Thomas Wood, a drapery salesman-turned-printer who had been a partner in the ''Birmingham Chronicle'' newspaper, the ''Shrewsbury Chronicle'' was first published on Monday 23 November 1772.<ref name=t9r8>{{cite book|title=Through Nine Reigns, 200 Years of The Shrewsbury Chronicle|publisher=Shrewsbury Chronicle|date=23 November 1972|page=50}}Bi-Centenary Souvenir.</ref> It was then titled ''The Shrewsbury Chronicle, or Wood's British Commercial Pamphlet''<ref name=t9r>{{cite book|title=Through Nine Reigns, 200 Years of The Shrewsbury Chronicle|page=49}}Illustration of first front page.</ref> and eight pages long.<ref name=t9r8 /> Following Wood's death in 1801, his widow Mary (''nee'' Horlick) carried on the paper until her own death in 1808, making her "one of the earliest, if not the earliest, of women newspaper proprietors".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BQ87AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA380|accessdate=23 October 2018|year=1801|publisher=J.B. Nichols|pages=380–}}</ref><ref name=t9r5>{{cite book|title=Through Nine Reigns, 200 Years of The Shrewsbury Chronicle|page=51}}</ref>
In the 1830s the paper, under the editorship of John Watton, supported the Whigs.<ref name="Page1979">{{cite book|author=William Page|title=The Victoria History of Shropshire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GedMAQAAMAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Constable|pages=263, 312, 313}}</ref><ref name="Black2010">{{cite book|author=Jeremy Black|title=The English Press in the Eighteenth Century (Routledge Revivals)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhGtAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|accessdate=23 October 2018|date=18 October 2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-83630-5|page=79|quote=I have however received letters of thanks for my introducing so many articles in favour of Mr. Pitt which I have done gratis - Wood to James Bland Burges MP, 1789}}</ref>
The paper covered national, international and local news, with advertisements alone on its front page until February 1953 when major Shropshire-interest news stories began being carried on it.<ref name=t9r6>{{cite book|title=Through Nine Reigns, 200 Years of The Shrewsbury Chronicle|page=55}}</ref>
The paper came out as a daily paper for just under a fortnight during the General Strike of 1926, its contents largely taken from BBC bulletins.<ref name=t9r2>{{cite book|title=Through Nine Reigns, 200 years of The Shrewsbury Chronicle|page=53}}</ref>
Over the centuries the paper has had many different offices and printing works around Shrewsbury, apart from a period between 1916 and 1927 when printing was done at Newport because of structural defects pending a rebuild,<ref name=t9r3>{{cite book|title=Through Nine Reigns, 200 Years of The Shrewsbury Chronicle|pages=52–53}}</ref> and later, several times, printing had to be done in Walsall when the works, then in Castle Foregate, was flooded.<ref name=t9r7>{{cite book|title=Through Nine Reigns, 200 Years of The Shrewsbury Chronicle|pages=53, 54}}</ref> It is now based in Abbey Foregate.
In 2004 circulation was over 19,000, the highest for 20 years.<ref name="NA">{{cite web |title=An Application to Ofcom for an FM Independent Local Radio Licence for SHREWSBURY |url=https://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/radio/applications/shrewfm.pdf |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20150106142842/https://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/radio/applications/shrewfm.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2015-01-06 |website=National Archives |publisher=Shrewsbury & Oswestry FM Ltd |accessdate=23 October 2018 |date=2005}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=October 2018}} In 2008 the paper's circulation was 14,015.<ref name="PG">{{cite news |title=Shrewsbury Chronicle adopts part-paid part-free strategy |url=https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/shrewsbury-chronicle-adopts-part-paid-part-free-strategy/ |accessdate=23 October 2018 |work=The Press Gazette |date=23 April 2009}}</ref>
The paper was awarded Best Campaigning Newspaper in Great Britain 2005 by the Newspaper Society.<ref name="NA"/>{{Better source needed|date=October 2018}} In 2009, its campaigning on local issues was noted by the Shrewsbury MP, Daniel Kawczynski, as was its fundraising.<ref name="Hansard">{{ukhansard | house=HC | date=20 Jan 2009 | c=192WH }}</ref><sup>[''better source needed'']</sup>
In 2009 the paper moved to a part-free, part-paid model, with some copies free and others for sale.<ref name="PG"/>
==Notable journalists and contributors== Essayist William Hazlitt's first published work, when a 13-year-old student, was a letter to the ''Chronicle'', printed in July 1791, condemning the riots in Birmingham.<ref>{{cite DNB |wstitle=Hazlitt, William|last=Stephen|first=Leslie|authorlink=Leslie Stephen|volume=25}}</ref>
Henry Lucy, later known as a political journalist under pen-name "Toby, M.P.", was chief reporter at the ''Chronicle'' in 1864.<ref name="Matthews2017">{{cite book|author=Rachel Matthews|title=The History of the Provincial Press in England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKqODgAAQBAJ&pg=PA78|accessdate=23 October 2018|date=18 May 2017|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4411-5646-4|pages=78–}}</ref>
Shropshire author Mary Webb's first published work was a five-verse poem carried by the paper, written on hearing news of the Shrewsbury rail accident in 1907. Her brother gave it to the ''Chronicle'' without telling Webb, and the paper printed it anonymously.<ref>{{cite book|last=Francis|first=Peter|title=A Matter of Life and Death - The Secrets of Shrewsbury Cemetery|year=2006|publisher=Logaston Press|page=41|isbn=1-904396-58-5}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=October 2018}}
Fyfe Robertson, the Scots broadcaster, was briefly a trainee reporter with the ''Chronicle'' in 1921.<ref name=t9r2 />{{Better source needed|date=October 2018}}
==See also== *''Shropshire Star'' *Midland News Association
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://shrewsburychronicle.com/ shrewsburychronicle.com]
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Category:Newspapers published in Shropshire Category:1772 establishments in England Category:Publications established in 1772 Category:Shrewsbury Category:Weekly newspapers published in the United Kingdom