The Visitor (newspaper)

Last updated

The Visitor
TheVisitor masthead.jpg
Type Weekly newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) National World
PublisherLancaster & Morecambe Newspapers Ltd
EditorNicola Adam
Founded1874
Political alignmentIndependent
Language English
Headquarters Morecambe, Lancashire
Circulation 583(as of 2023) [1]
Sister newspapersLancaster Guardian
Website thevisitor.co.uk

The Visitor is a weekly paid-for newspaper published in Morecambe, Lancashire, England. It covers Morecambe and the surrounding district including Overton, Middleton, Heysham, Slyne, Hest Bank, Bolton-le-Sands and Carnforth.

Contents

Until 2014 the paper was published from offices in Victoria Street, Morecambe by Lancaster & Morecambe Newspapers Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnston Press plc. From February 2014 the editorial base for the paper, along with sister newspaper Lancaster Guardian, was moved to new offices on the White Lund Industrial Estate, Morecambe. [2] Printing of the paper is contracted elsewhere.

As from 21 September 2011 the dateline for The Visitor changed from Wednesday to Tuesday. This reflected the fact that the newspaper was on sale in the shops from the Tuesday afternoon. [3] It is sold around the Morecambe Bay area from Grange-over-Sands and Kendal in the north to Galgate in the south.

History

The newspaper was founded in 1874, the first issue being on Thursday 4 June 1874 at a cover price of 1d. It then had the fuller title, The Morecambe Visitor and General Advertiser, and consisted of four pages, 18 inches x 12 inches. [4] The founding proprietor, George Bingham, had started the paper more as a service to the visiting holiday makers than the resident population, hence the origin of its name. Initially it was issued in the summer months only but after good sales George decided to publish it weekly throughout the year. [4] A new office was opened in Victoria Street, Morecambe, which became the centre for both editorial and printing for many years.

In 1898, Arthur Caunt joined the newspaper as a reporter and this started the long involvement of the Caunt family with the paper which lasted until 1986. [4] Arthur took over as editor and proprietor in 1906 and formed the family company, The Morecambe Press Ltd. He remained in that role until he died in 1938. His son, James Caunt, then took over until he died in January 1959. Responsibilities then passed to James's son, Arthur. However, Arthur died 12 months later in a car accident, and his sister, Muriel Bates, found herself having to take the helm. [5] After two years, Muriel passed the editorial role to an ‘outsider’, Derek Mosey, but remained as proprietor. The family finally sold the business in 1986 to United Provincial Newspapers, who then merged the paper with the Lancaster Guardian to be run jointly under the new subsidiary company, Lancaster & Morecambe Newspapers Ltd. The company has subsequently been taken into the Johnston Press group.

Perhaps the most sensational episode in the paper's history occurred with the edition of 6 August 1947. James Caunt, the editor, and not afraid to speak his mind in the Mustard and Cress editorial piece, penned a diatribe against British Jews for not doing more to prevent Zionist killing of British troops in Palestine, describing Jews as 'a plague on Britain' and encouraging violence against them. [4] This brought a wave of condemnation, eventually resulting in the judiciary summoning Caunt for seditious libel. Widespread press coverage was given, even a report in the Sydney Morning Herald paper. [6] In a high-profile trial at Liverpool Assizes, with Caunt being defended by the nation's leading advocate, he was found not guilty. [7] The Visitor reported the acquittal on the front page, normally reserved for advertisements only. [8] Soon afterwards, this led the paper to decide to permanently have news on the front page and to move advertisements to the inside pages, becoming the first local newspaper to do so. [4]

For many years after the Second World War, the paper had the strap line "founded in 1874 when income tax was 1d in the £". This was originally a sideswipe by James Caunt at the high-taxing post-war Labour government, [4] but became a long-running hall mark of the paper.

In 2005 the paper received a special RNLI award for its support and coverage of the lifeboats during the cockle picking tragedy in Morecambe Bay in February 2004. [9]

On 14 December 2021 the visitor website was shut down, visitors thereafter being redirected to the Lancaster Guardian website. [10]

Editors

TermEditor
1874 – 1906George Bingham
1906 – 1938Arthur Caunt
1938 – 1959James Caunt
1959 – 1960Arthur Caunt (Jnr.)
1960 – 1962Muriel Bates
1962 – 1992 [11] Derek Mosey
1992 – 1998Mike Whalley
1998 – 2009 [12] Glen Cooper
2009 – 2010Ingrid Kent (acting editor)
2010 [13] – 2012Steve Brauner
2012 [14] – presentNicola Adam

Related Research Articles

<i>The Times</i> British daily newspaper

The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times, are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times, which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. In general, the political position of The Times is considered to be centre-right.

<i>Evening Standard</i> British newspaper

The Evening Standard, formerly The Standard (1827–1904), is a long-established newspaper, since 2009 a local free newspaper in tabloid format, with a website on the Internet, published and distributed in London, England. In October 2009, after being purchased by Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, the paper ended a 180-year history of paid circulation and multiple editions every day, and became a free newspaper publishing a single print edition every weekday, doubling its circulation as part of a change in its business plan.

<i>Daily Mail</i> British tabloid newspaper

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper published in London. It was founded in 1896. As of 2020, it has the highest circulation of paid newspapers in the UK. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982, a Scottish edition was launched in 1947, and an Irish edition in 2006. Content from the paper appears on the MailOnline news website, although the website is managed separately and has its own editor.

<i>The Observer</i> British weekly newspaper

The Observer is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to The Guardian and The Guardian Weekly, having been acquired by their parent company, Guardian Media Group Limited, in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.

<i>News of the World</i> 1843–2011 British tabloid newspaper

The News of the World was a weekly national "red top" tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one of the highest English-language circulations. It was originally established as a broadsheet by John Browne Bell, who identified crime, sensation and vice as the themes that would sell most copies. The Bells sold to Henry Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969, it was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch's media firm News Limited. Reorganised into News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, the newspaper was transformed into a tabloid in 1984 and became the Sunday sister paper of The Sun.

<i>Daily Express</i> British middle market newspaper

The Daily Express is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet in 1900 by Sir Arthur Pearson. Its sister paper, the Sunday Express, was launched in 1918. In June 2022, it had an average daily circulation of 201,608.

<i>The Courier-Mail</i> Daily tabloid newspaper in Australia

The Courier-Mail is an Australian newspaper published in Brisbane. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast. It is available for purchase both online and in paper form throughout Queensland and most regions of Northern New South Wales.

<i>The Jewish Chronicle</i> London-based Jewish weekly newspaper

The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish weekly newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. Its editor is Jake Wallis Simons.

<i>Novascotian</i> Newspaper in Nova Scotia, Canada

The Novascotian was a newspaper published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It became one of the most influential voices in the British North American colonies in its nearly one century of existence.

<i>Leicester Mercury</i> English daily newspaper in Leicester

The Leicester Mercury is a British regional newspaper for the city of Leicester and the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. The paper began in the 19th century as the Leicester Daily Mercury and later changed to its present title.

The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the Daily Mail, was first published in 1896.

<i>Sunday Dispatch</i>

The Sunday Dispatch was a prominent British newspaper, published between 27 September 1801 and 18 June 1961. It was ultimately discontinued due to its merger with the Sunday Express.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morecambe</span> Town in England

Morecambe is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morecambe Promenade railway station</span> Former station in Lancashire, England

Morecambe Promenade Station was a railway station in Morecambe, Lancashire, England. It was opened on 24 March 1907 by the Midland Railway and closed in February 1994. After twelve weeks break in passenger service for the revision of track work and signalling a new Morecambe station was opened on a site closer to the town centre.

Andrew Bent was a printer, publisher and newspaper proprietor, active in Australia. He established the first successful newspaper in Tasmania, was the first Australian newspaperman to print a newspaper free from government control, and the first Australian printer to be imprisoned for libel.

The Manchester Gazette was a conformist non-Tory newspaper based in Manchester, England.

The Manchester Observer was a short-lived non-conformist Liberal newspaper based in Manchester, England. Its radical agenda led to an invitation to Henry "Orator" Hunt to speak at a public meeting in Manchester, which subsequently led to the Peterloo Massacre and the shutdown of the newspaper.

James Wroe (1788–1844), was the only editor of the radical reformist newspaper the Manchester Observer, the journalist who named the incident known as the Peterloo massacre, and the writer of pamphlets as a result that brought about the Reform Act 1832.

The St James's Gazette was a London evening newspaper published from 1880 to 1905. It was founded by the Conservative Henry Hucks Gibbs, later Baron Aldenham, a director of the Bank of England 1853–1901 and its governor 1875–1877; the paper's first editor was Frederick Greenwood, previously the editor of the Conservative-leaning Pall Mall Gazette.

References

  1. ↑ "The Visitor - Morecambe". Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK). 19 February 2024. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  2. ↑ "The Visitor and Lancaster Guardian move into new building". The Visitor. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  3. ↑ The Visitor, 21 September 2011
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bingham Roger K., Lost Resort ? The Flow and Ebb of Morecambe, Cicerone Press, Milnthorpe, Cumbria 1990 ( ISBN   1 85284 071 4)
  5. ↑ "Weekly newspaper's former owner dies at 83 - Journalism News from". HoldtheFrontPage. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  6. ↑ "Newspaper Article". Trove.nla.gov.au. 14 October 1947. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  7. ↑ "British Editor Who Incited Attacks on Jews Acquitted on Charges of Seditious Libel". Archive.jta.org. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  8. ↑ Official shorthand transcript of the trial at the Liverpool Assize Court of James Caunt for alleged seditious libel against the Jewish people, published in the 'Morecambe and Heysham Visitor' on August 6th, 1947; Book by James Caunt (published after the trial), An editor on trial: Rex v. Caunt, alleged seditious libel, Morecambe Press Ltd, 1947
  9. ↑ "Morecambe paper given award for RNLI support". Press Gazette. 20 May 2005. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  10. ↑ "Home page (archived at 10:52)". The Visitor. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
    "Redirect from home page (archived at 16:52)". The Visitor. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  11. ↑ "Society Of Editors". Society Of Editors. 20 October 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  12. ↑ Luft, Oliver (22 October 2009). "Editor of Morecambe weekly to step down after 11 years". Press Gazette. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  13. ↑ Luft, Oliver (10 September 2010). "Former Crain's editor Steve Brauner to edit two weeklies". Press Gazette. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  14. ↑ Adam, Nicola (26 June 2012). "Thanks for the warm welcome". The Visitor. Morecambe. p. 2.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.