Staines Informer

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The Staines Informer is a weekly free newspaper distributed in the area in and around Staines. It is now owned by the Trinity Mirror group through their North Surrey and London Newspapers division.

The Staines Informer began in 1974. Several other 'freesheets' were already being circulated within this lucrative advertising area, but these usually lacked any editorial substance and were very much of the "read it and chuck it" variety. The Informer offered a new style of freesheet which also soon challenged the long established local "paid for" weekly press (notably the Middlesex Chronicle). The new entrant's mix of human interest stories, entertainment reviews, lifestyle features and informative advertorial soon garnered it a lot of local respect. It became a newspaper which people retained for the whole week and consulted when needing local information or services.

The main editorial areas covered by The Staines Informer today are the Surrey boroughs of Spelthorne, Runnymede and Elmbridge. Unfortunately however, the other newspaper interests of the parent company seem to have brought about something of a mismatch between distribution and copy areas. The paper is distributed to many residents of Feltham, Bedfont and Hanworth in the London Borough of Hounslow, which were previously well covered by stories in the Staines Informer.

It is now rare for anything happening in Hounslow borough to make it to The Staines Informer, except perhaps in advertising or advertorial. Instead, and rather bizarrely, a sister title, The Feltham Leader [ sic ] usually carries a Feltham story on the front page, but inside the editorial largely covers the same ground as the Staines Informer, often in fact the same stories written by the same journalists. Local readers may sometimes feel a bit cheated that the same items appear in several free titles they receive, as well as their weekly paid for compact.

Quite why this rather odd pattern of distribution and editorial has arisen is unclear. Maybe it is a ploy by Trinity Mirror to boost sales of its paid-for title that carries "The Feltham Chronicle" as its masthead. The Feltham Chronicle is now the branding for the long-established Middlesex Chronicle in this area, though the Staines office of that paper closed some years ago. Historically, Staines was in Middlesex though administratively it is now part of Surrey.

Taken together, the various Trinity Mirror titles have a disappointing standard of local coverage in their original distribution area, though there is often some excellent journalism in their interviews and reviews. Within the eastern section of the Staines Informer distribution area, there is also competition from a more recent entrant to the local paper market. Newsquest now publish and distribute both the free Hounslow Guardian and the paid-for Hounslow and Feltham Times. The Hounslow Guardian gives far more coverage to local stories and would probably be the recommended choice of local journal in this area, though many of their stories are often re-cooked versions of ones which appeared in the paid for titles.

The Staines Informer is distributed every Thursday and is delivered as far as Langley, Hanworth, Shepperton, and Englefield Green (in the North, East, South, and West respectively).

The Staines Informer is based at offices in Eastworth Road,Chertsey, also the base for its sister papers the Staines and Egham News and Surrey Herald. After the initial success of The Staines Informer, the original publisher established similar newspapers under this banner throughout South West and West London, each of which has garnered a strong readership in their respective areas. These are based at Informer house in Teddington.