The Comet

It was established in 1996 as the result of a merger of three separate titles: the Stevenage Comet and Hitchin Comet, both founded in 1971, and the Letchworth & Baldock Comet. All three continued as separate editions of the amalgamated title.

It’s published by Archant Herts & Cambs, a branch of the Archant Anglia division of the Archant media group, and has won several “Free Newspaper of the Year” awards in recent years. The editorial offices are collocated with Archant Herts & Cambs’s headquarters in Stevenage.

The vast majority of the circulation is delivered direct to homes, but a very small percentage of copies are sold through the news trade. At one stage a modest number of copies were distributed by free pickup (about 10 per cent of the Letchworth & Baldock edition, considerably fewer for the Stevenage edition, and hardly any of the Hitchin edition). However, as of 2012 that modest number had dwindled to negligible proportions.

It comes out on Wednesdays. All three editions are also available online as e-editions.