View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
May 4, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 7:10pm

Iliffe buys Your Leek Paper

By Press Gazette

The independent newspaper group funded by ex-Northcliffe employees’ redundancy cheques, Your Leek Paper Ltd, has been acquired by Iliffe News and Media for an undisclosed sum.

IN&M is a subsidiary of the Yattendon Investment Trust — the fourth largest independent regional newspaper publisher in the UK.

In 2000, seven former Leek Post & Times employees decided to launch Your Leek Paper as a rival title to their old paper when the family-owned business was sold to regional newspaper giant Northcliffe for a rumoured £3m.

Since its launch, circulation has grown to 5,000. Your Leek Paper Ltd also publishes an A4 glossy magazine, Times Gone By, runs a design agency and a print management division and recently launched an online business magazine.

Editor Gary Shenton said: "We could not be with a better group. We will still be proudly independent because we will be part of an independent group and we will stand by the people of Leek.

"The staff are still in place and we all either live or have worked in the town for the majority of our lives, so nothing changes really, but the paper has the backing of an independent group. It’s a giant step forward."

Your Leek Paper Ltd will become part of Staffordshire Newspapers Ltd, which also publishes papers in Burton-upon- Trent, Stafford, Ashbourne, Uttoxeter and the Black Country. MD Gary Matthews said: "We are delighted, as a family company, to be acquiring a newspaper such as YLP. The staff are as determined as we are to take the title forward and we are excited by its prospects."

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network