Midland News Association

The Midland News Association Ltd is the UK’s largest independent newspaper publisher, with several newspapers across Wolverhampton and the Black Country, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire and Mid-Wales. Its flagship title, the Express & Star, is Britain’s largest-selling regional evening newspaper. Its other evening title, the Shropshire Star, dominates newspaper sales in that county. The company also publishes several weekly paid-for and freesheet titles across its circulation area.

History

MNA’s history goes back to 1880, with the founding of the Wolverhampton Evening Star as a Liberal-supporting rival to the Conservative Evening Express. Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie bought the Star in 1882 with the encouragement of his fellow native of Dunfermline, Wolverhampton councillor Thomas Graham. A limited company was set up in 1883. The Star took over the Express in 1884, and the merged title took on its current name – Express & Star – five years later. Carnegie withdrew from the paper and the Midland News Association in 1902, but the Graham family have remained closely involved in the running of the company throughout.

The company intensified its activities in nearby Shropshire with the foundation of the Shropshire Star in 1964 as a replacement for the Express & Star‘s Shropshire edition.

In 2004 MNA’s parent company, the Claverley Group – named after the East Shropshire village of Claverley where the Graham family made their home – acquired the Guiton Group, which publishes the Jersey Evening Post and Guernsey Press and Star, the only daily newspapers in their respective Channel Islands.

Recent developments

MNA introduced partial paywalls on their two flagship titles in April 2011, but dropped them nine months later.

Divisions

England: West Midlands

• Express & Star Ltd
• Shropshire Newspapers Ltd

Midland News Association newspapers listed alphabetically