The North Shropshire Chronicle has been an edition of the Shrewsbury Chronicle for many years but it did not have its own totally separate front and news pages until 1999.
The paper is based at Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, and is printed on Wednesday evening and on sale from Thursday breakfast.
The Chronicle is a community newspaper reflecting the lives of all its readers and aims to chronicle everything that has happened in the three towns of Wem, Ellesmere and Whitchurch and the surrounding area during the previous seven days.
The paper averages 80 pages each week and includes a property supplement with editorial and advertisements providing an authoritative guide to homes for sale across the area.
It also has eight pages of sport, 32 pages of colour, two pages of entertainments, a page of letters, five pages of news from around the town and villages, plus news, features and classifieds advertisements.
The paper does not only take out of the community, it also puts back with its successful charity projects. These include:
1997 Macmillan Appeal - £600,000 raised to build a new cancer unit at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
1999 Hummingbird Appeal - £400,000 raised to build a new diabetes unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
2001 Sunflower Appeal - £250,000 raised to build a new room, buy more equipment and landscape grounds of the Shropshire and Mid Wales Hospice.
2003 Umbrella Appeal - £250,000 campaign to provide specialist beds and equipment for the new stroke unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. This is still ongoing.
2003 Butterfly Appeal - £50,000 to buy a new minibus for the local children’s hospice, Hope House. This is also still ongoing.
During the last seven years the paper has increased its circulation by nearly 23 per cent from just under 15,000 to almost 19,000 - its highest circulation for 20 years.
In those years the paper has also made its mark in the newspaper industry winning numerous awards and being shortlisted in seven national finals.
The full roll of honour is :1997 - Best Weekly Newspaper in the Midlands in the BT Press & Broadcast awards and finalist in the BT Weekly Newspaper of the Year.
1998 - Retained title as the BT Midlands Weekly Newspaper of the year and finalist in the BT Weekly Newspaper of the Year.
1999 - One of only six finalists in the Best Weekly Paper in Great Britain in the Regional Press Awards, organised by the industry’s leading trade journal, the UK Press Gazette.
2000 - One of only six papers nominated for the national final of the 2000 Newspaper Awards Weekly Newspaper of the Year, organised by the Production Journal, the industry’s leading print journal.
2001 - Again one of only six finalists in the Best Weekly Paper in Great Britain in the Regional Press Awards.
2002 - Runner-up in the BT Weekly Newspaper of the Year for the Midlands. Winner of the Best Weekly Newspaper in the Midlands and East Anglia in the Newspaper Society’s Best weekly Newspaper Awards.
One of only eight finalists in the national competition for the Newspaper Society’s Best Weekly Newspaper in Great Britain award. Reporter Lorna Rutter was third in the Newspaper Society’s
Weekly Reporter of the Year.
2003 - Runner-up in the Best Weekly Newspaper in the Midlands and East Anglia in the Newspaper Society’s Best Weekly Newspaper Awards.
One of only six finalists in the Best Weekly Paper in Great Britain in the Regional Press Awards, organised by the industry’s leading trade journal, the UK Press Gazette. Runner-up in the Birmingham press Club Best Evening or Weekly paper in the West Midlands.
