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East Kent Gazette (defunct)

The East Kent Gazette was a weekly tabloid newspaper sold in Sittingbourne, nearby smaller towns and villages and the Isle of Sheppey and delivered free to households in the same area.

It was founded in 1855 as The Sittingbourne and Faversham Gazette; Milton and Whitstable Journal. By 1861 it had become The Sittingbourne, Faversham, Sheerness and East Kent Gazette, etc.; later that year it became simply The East Kent Gazette. After 18 months from July 1864 as the Sittingbourne & East Kent Gazette, etc., it finally settled on the title East Kent Gazette at the beginning of 1866.

Latterly it was published by Kent Regional News & Media (KRN, formerly Kent Regional Newspapers), a subsidiary of Northcliffe Media and thus ultimately of the Daily Mail & General Trust, from editorial offices in Sittingbourne. Like the rest of KRN’s newspapers, its web presence was through Northcliffe’s thisiskent.co.uk website.

There was a sub-edition for Sheppey, the Sheppey Gazette. Both came out on Wednesdays. An e-edition of the main edition was also available by paid subscription.

On 25 November 2011 Northcliffe Media announced the likely closure of the East Kent Gazette in early December, following the failure of its proposed sale of KRN to the KM Group. The Gazette confirmed the closure on its own front page on 7 December, stating that the final edition would be on the 14th. The failed sale led indirectly to the creation of the Local World media group nearly a year later.