Mansfield Chad

It was founded in 1952 as the Mansfield & North Nottinghamshire Chronicle-Advertiser, as a result of the merger of the Mansfield & North Notts Advertiser (founded in 1871) and the younger Mansfield, Sutton and Kirkby Chronicle (1895). It absorbed the oldest Mansfield newspaper, the Mansfield Chronicle (founded 1858), in 1956. Unsurprisingly, the new name was too much of a mouthful for most, and the name of Chad (CHronicle ADvertiser) was soon settled upon, though not adopted officially until 1979 according to the British Library (1996, according to Libraries & Information East Midlands).

It’s published by North Notts Newspapers Ltd, which is part of the Johnston Press nationwide group of regional newspapers.

It switched from broadsheet to tabloid format in 1981.

Until recently it claimed to be the second largest weekly regional newspaper in the United Kingdom.

In early 2009 the former Sherwood & Rainworth, Woodhouse & Warsop and Shirebrook & Bolsover editions were discontinued and replaced with a single Village edition, leaving just three editions. In 2011 the Village edition was also discontinued, leaving just the Mansfield edition and a smaller Ashfield edition. Both come out on Wednesdays.

There’s also a related weekly freesheet tabloid, the Alfreton Chad. A second companion freesheet, the Mansfield & Ashfield Observer, ceased publication in October 2012 under a decision by Johnston Press to better concentrate on production of its paid-for titles for the North East Midlands/South Yorkshire area.

The editorial offices moved from Newgate Lane in Mansfield (where they’d been since 1974) to Sherwood Oaks Business Park to the south of the town in early August 2013.