West Briton
- The West Briton is a weekly tabloid newspaper sold across mid-Cornwall. Until recently (2007) it claimed to be the highest selling weekly newspaper in Britain, but appears to have dropped that claim since.
- Truro & Mid-Cornwall
- Redruth, Camborne & Hayle
- Falmouth & Penryn
- Helston & The Lizard
- Website:
- http://www.westbriton.co.uk/
- Address:
- West Briton
High Water House
City Wharf
Malpas Road
TRURO
TR1 1QH - Tel:
- 01872 271451
- Fax:
- 01872 247432
It was founded in 1810 as The West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser. a liberal opposition paper to the Royal Cornwall Gazette, which was founded seven years earlier and which it eventually absorbed in 1951, becoming the West Briton and Royal Cornwall Gazette (having spent 1944-1951 as simply The West Briton). It adopted its present title in 1995.
It was taken over by the Daily Mail & General Trust‘s Northcliffe Newspapers Group (now Northcliffe Media) in the 1970s and was part of their South West Media Group (formerly Westcountry Publications). Northcliffe became part of the Local World group at the end of 2012.
The editorial offices are in Truro. However, the West Briton isn’t actually printed in Cornwall any more; since 1993 it’s been printed in Plymouth on the same presses as the Western Morning News. In 1995 it switched to tabloid format.
It has four editions:
It used to have its own pages within the South West Media Group’s thisiscornwall.co.uk website, which it shared with the Cornish Guardian, The Cornishman and the Western Morning News. In common with Northcliffe newspapers elsewhere, its online identity was rather lost behind that of the website from 2011 when Northcliffe shifted its online efforts to local portal websites. However, Local World announced early on that it would be introducing “publisher-branded” websites for all former Northcliffe titles.
It comes out on Thursdays.