Bolton Evening News

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The Bolton Evening News newspaper covered the town of Bolton in north-western England. It was part of the Newsquest media group, a company of the U.S media giant 'Gannett Inc'.

[edit] In depth

The Bolton Evening News was Britain's first community evening halfpenny newspaper. The only other evening paper to publish before the Bolton Evening News was the Shipping Gazette in South Shields.

The very first edition of the Bolton Evening News was founded by the Tillotson family and was published on Tuesday March 19, 1867 - with the front page entirely devoted to adverts.

But the origins of the paper stretch way back to 1834 when John Tillotson was apprenticed to printer Robert Marsden Holden, who had premises in Mealhouse Lane, Bolton.

Tillotson eventually married his boss's daughter and took over the business in 1850. His son, William Frederick Tillotson, became apprenticed to his father.

He managed to persuade his father to help him launch the first Bolton Evening News which stretched to four pages.

Severe difficulties dogged WF Tillotson's early enterprise but he persevered and the Evening News really took off under the first editor William Brimelow.

Legend has it that the job application process then could be traumatic. Brimelow is said to have had a habit of throwing a book on the ground just as potential applicants entered the office to see what their reaction was.

Following on from the success of the evening paper the weekly Journals followed: Bolton Journal and Guardian 1871, Farnworth Weekly Journal 1873, Leigh, Tyldesley and Atherton Journal 1874, Eccles and Patricroft Journal 1874, Horwich and Westhoughton Journal 1925, and the Stretford and Urmston in 1960.

In addition to the newspaper the Tillotson family also developed their general printing and carton making businesses.

The paper went from strength to strength and outgrew its primitive origins in a hand-fed printer and in 1876 a Victory printing and folding machine was acquired with a capacity of printing 16,000 copies an hour.

The Tillotsons remained owners of the Evening News into the latter part of the 20th century, but the days of family-owned newspapers were drawing to a close and in 1971 the Tillotsons sold the company to St Regis International of New York.

From then on change happened rapidly. St Regis sold the group to Reed International in 1982 and the Bolton Evening News became the largest of its titles.

In 1987 the paper relocated to its present building - Newspaper House in Churchgate and the old building in Mealhouse Lane became the Shipgates shopping centre, later becoming part of Crompton Place shopping arcade.

In September 2006 the paper was renamed The Bolton News. The rename came about as the paper is now delivered from the morning onwards.

[edit] History of the Bolton Evening News

• 1867: Bolton Evening News launched on March 19 by W F Tillotson, first halfpenny evening paper in the country, in Mawdsley Street.

• 1868: Founder members of Press Association.

• 1889: W F Tillotson dies at the age of 44.

• 1894: First daily newspaper in Britain to produce a photograph by the half-tone process.

• 1926: One of the first offices outside London to be equipped with Cread-Wheatstone apparatus which bought both home and foreign news over a landline into the offices.

• 1956: Fred Tillotson, son of W F, retired, having guided the company both as director and chairman (and on a couple of occasions as editor) since 1901.

• 1962: The Evening News made newspaper history when, for first time in a British paper, all editions contained a full-page printed in Hi-Fi colour.

• 1967: Bolton Evening News named as country's best designed newspaper.

• 1971: Tillotsons Ltd. bought by St Regis Paper Company of New York, and Marcus Tillotson, the last of the founding family to be connected with the Bolton Evening News and Chairman since 1956, retired.

• 1976: Old hot metal process of production replaced by computerised photo-setting.

• 1982: Company sold to Reed International.

• 1985: A historic breakthrough in newspaper production when company signed a single-keying agreement with its National Graphical Association tele-ad staff, first of its kind in the UK provincial newspaper industry.

• 1987: The company relocated from Mealhouse Lane to Newspaper House in Churchgate. At same time the paper opened an out-of-town publishing centre at Lostock, and converted from letterpress to printing web-offset.

• 1989: Full electronic page make-up introduced, making company first in the world to achieve the complete electronic newspaper where stories, photographs and advertisement processed by computer from the moment of compilation almost to point where paper is printed.

• 1991: As company ownership of newspapers expands rapidly, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and its associated weekly newspapers were bought from Thomson Newspapers, also to be printed at Bolton.

• 1996: Newsquest founded in management buy-out from Reed.

• 1999: Newsquest became part of Gannett.

• 2001: Printing presses opened at Wingates Industrial Estate.

• 2006: The newspaper's name is changed to The Bolton News to reflect changing reader habits and lifestyles.