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Free Press of Monmouthshire

The Free Press of Monmouthshire is a series of weekly tabloid newspapers sold in most of the county of Monmouthshire (formerly Gwent), apart from in the south-west around Newport (where, perversely, the group has its offices; each used to have an office in its own town, but they were closed in November 2011).

The group’s origins lie with the Pontypool Free Press, founded in 1859 as the Pontypool Free Press and Herald of the Hills. It took the title Free Press of Monmouthshire from 1909 onwards. A Chepstow edition started in 1980, and by the 2000s there were four editions:

  • Abergavenny Free Press
  • Chepstow Free Press
  • Monmouth Free Press
  • Pontypool Free Press

The Chepstow edition had the largest circulation by some distance, followed by the Pontypool edition, with the Monmouth and Abergavenny editions bringing up the rear on more or less the same numbers.

In November 2008 the two smallest editions were merged with the Chepstow edition into a single Monmouthshire edition called simply The Free Press. The Pontypool Free Press continued in existence.

The group’s part of Newsquest (Wales).

Both editions come out on Wednesdays.