All about the United Kingdom’s national, regional and local press

St Albans Observer (defunct)

The St Albans Observer was a weekly tabloid newspaper sold in the Hertfordshire town of St Albans and the surrounding area.

It was founded in 1985 by Westminster Press (then owned by Pearson, publishers of the Financial Times) as a freesheet weekly broadsheet sister to the Watford Observer, but switched to tabloid format before being relaunched as a paid weekly broadsheet in 1998. In the meantime, Pearson had sold Westminster Press to Newsquest, who themselves were taken over by Gannett, the largest US publisher, in 1999. The Observer switched format yet again – to tabloid – in 2001.

The editorial offices moved to Watford in 2006.

There were two editions: the St Albans edition and a local edition for Harpenden, the Harpenden Observer. Both came out on Fridays.

It was incorporated into its freesheet companion, the St Albans & Harpenden Review, during 2008.