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Macclesfield Times (defunct)

The Macclesfield Times was a weekly freesheet tabloid newspaper distributed to homes in the town of Macclesfield and other communities in north-eastern Cheshire, including the smaller towns of Bollington and Prestbury.

It was founded in 1898, but was renamed the Macclesfield Times and Congleton Times just three years later. It absorbed The Macclesfield Chronicle and Cheshire County News in 1906 to become the Macclesfield Times and Chronicle and Congleton Times. In 1913 it was renamed The Macclesfield Times and East Cheshire Observer and kept that name until 1952, when it merged with the Macclesfield Courier (founded in the early 1800s, with the full title Macclesfield Courier and Herald, Congleton Gazette, Stockport Express, and Cheshire General Advertiser) as the Macclesfield Times and Courier

It was merged with the Macclesfield Express in 1958 and didn’t resume separate publication until the early 1980s. Latterly it was part of a two-title group together with the smaller Poynton Times.

It was published by Greater Manchester Weekly Newspapers Ltd, a division of MEN Media, which in turn is part of Trinity Mirror – they bought it from the Guardian Media Group in March 2010.

The newsroom moved to Manchester in May 2009 along with all MEN Media’s other newspapers’ newsrooms. Following the Trinity Mirror takeover of MEN in March 2010, the editorial offices for the group shifted to Chadderton on the outskirts of Oldham in September 2010. The former editorial office in Macclesfield, shared with the Express, has now closed.

It had no website of its own; the link given below is to the Express’s website.

It came out on Thursdays.

It ceased publication in mid-August 2011 as part of a reorganisation of MEN Media’s portfolio which also saw the closure of the Rochdale Express and the relaunch of the North East Manchester Advertiser and the Prestwich Advertiser as paid-for titles.