The Bath Chronicle is celebrating its 250th anniversary today by publishing a bumper edition and leading a series of local events.
The Northcliffe Media-owned title has given away a 40-page supplement marking its anniversary as part of a 248-page paper looking back over its history.
Bath Abbey is to recognise the landmark birthday of the city’s newspaper by ringing its bells for 30 minutes, while the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is to host a special exhibition of front pages and stories from the paper’s archives.
Sam Holliday, editor of the Bath Chronicle, said: “As we have been researching the paper’s history for this anniversary edition, I soon started to realise that we haven’t just reported on the history of the city – we really are a key part of that history.
“For major Bath institutions like the Bath Abbey and the BRLSI to want to get involved in our celebrations shows that they recognise the unique part we have played in the shaping of this amazing city.”
As part of the celebrations the Chronicle launched a series of reader competitions including a short story contest (to describe a day in the Chronicle office in 250 words), a film contest (to make a film about life in Bath in 2 minutes and 50 seconds).
The paper also launched a search to find the oldest issue still being kept in someone’s home which resulted in a pristine 1787 copy of the title being unearthed.
The Bath Chronicle switched from daily to weekly in October 2007. It last daily circulation figure was 12,363, compared with a weekly ABC figure earlier this year of 18,505 – up 0.5 per cent year on year.
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