Derbyshire Times

It was founded in 1854 as The Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald; it dropped the Chesterfield Herald in 1903. It absorbed a local rival, the 1827-founded Derbyshire Courier, in 1922. It switched to tabloid format in 1986.

Since its foundation it’s achieved a number of firsts, including becoming the first weekly newspaper in England to introduce linotype setting (in 1893), and the first acquisition of the Johnston Press group of regional and local newspapers in England (in the 1970s).

It’s published by Wilfred Edmunds (Derbyshire Times) Ltd, part of Johnston Press’s North Midlands & South Yorkshire division, and as of 2007 its circulation was in the Top Ten for regional weekly titles.

Until recently there were five editions:

• Chesterfield/Clay Cross
• East
• North East
• Alfreton
• Matlock/Peak

but these were reduced to just two by 2011: North Derbyshire (by far the larger) and Alfreton.

There’s also a whole stable of weekly paid and freesheet companion titles:

• Alfreton Echo
• Chesterfield Advertiser
• Dronfield Advertiser
• Eckington Leader
• Peak Courier
• Matlock Mercury

(There were even more, but the High Peak Courier and Peak Times merged to form the Peak Courier in 2009, and the Bolsover Advertiser closed in 2011.)

For a time in the later nineteenth century it was a twice-weekly paper published on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

It comes out on Thursdays.