Archant

Norwich-based Archant Ltd is one of the UK’s longest-established newspaper publishing companies, with a history going back nearly 170 years. It claims to be the UK’s largest independently-owned regional media business, with four daily newspapers (notably the Eastern Daily Press and the East Anglian Daily Times) and some 75 weeklies. Its geographical focus is very much on southern England, particularly East Anglia.

History

Archant began in 1845 with the founding of the Norfolk News by four businessmen including Jeremiah Colman (of mustard fame) and John Copeman, whose descendants are still closely involved with Archant. For its first 120 years it remained an exclusively Norfolk-based business, with the addition of the Eastern Weekly Press in 1867 – renamed the Eastern Daily Press three years later – and the Eastern Evening News (now the Norwich Evening News). It was incorporated as Eastern Counties Newspapers in 1884.

At the end of the 1960s, Eastern Counties Newspapers merged with the Ipswich-based East Anglian Daily Times Company to form the Eastern Counties Newspapers Group. In 1981 the company expanded further, launching and acquiring several titles in South West England and Scotland through its new subsidiary Community Media Limited, based in Bath. A series of Advertiser freesheets was acquired in 1985 and brought fully into the ECNG fold a decade later. The 1990s also saw ECNG extend across East Anglia into Cambridgeshire and into Aberdeenshire (Peterhead); it also established a presence on the Internet in 1996 with its Eastern Counties Network news website, later split into separate websites for each newspaper; and in 1998 it acquired Home Counties Newspapers, giving it a presence in London, Essex and Hertfordshire.

In 2002 ECNG renamed itself Archant to reflect its widening geographical and business activity range.

Recent developments

Archant acquired several London local newspapers from Independent News and Media in 2003. Four years later saw its first significant divestment, when it sold its eight Scottish titles to Johnston Press.

Its most recent expansion was the acquisition of KOS Media, publishers of Kent on Sunday and several other freesheets across Kent.

Divisions

England: East of England

• Archant Herts & Cambs
• Archant Norfolk
• Archant Suffolk
  (all part of Archant Anglia)

England: South West

• Archant South West
  (part of Archant Lifestyle)

England: South East & London

• Archant KOS Media
  (part of Archant Lifestyle)
• Archant London

Archant’s newspapers listed alphabetically