Baylis Media

History

The Advertiser started publication in 1869 under the proprietorship of Edwin Bushell Prosser. However, within three years his business had run into trouble and he sold up to five local businessmen in 1872. Frederick Baylis, a journalist from the West Country, joined the partnership later that year and bought out his partners in 1873, thus becoming the sole proprietor. His four children, Edith, Bertha, Gerald and Watson, inherited the paper on his death in 1906.

By the time of the Second World War the newspaper was being managed by Gerald Baylis’s son Louis, who incorporated a company in 1943, Baylis & Co. (The Maidenhead Advertiser) Limited.

In 1962 Louis Baylis established a charitable trust, the Louis Baylis (Maidenhead Advertiser) Charitable Trust, effectively making a gift of the newspaper to the town. The Trust’s aim was “To preserve the Advertiser as an independent family concern free from all outside influence and its continuance as part of the civic and social life of the community it serves.” The Advertiser is wholly owned by the Trust, which receives 80 per cent of its profits and distributes grants to worthy causes in the Maidenhead area.

Recent developments

Baylis & Co. bought the Slough Express and Windsor Express in 2008. The following year the company was renamed Baylis Media Limited, reflecting its expansion into Web-based activities.

Baylis Media’s newspapers listed alphabetically