The Isle of Wight County Press has put its Newport office on the open market this week with an asking price of £700,000.
The weekly newspaper moved into Brannon House in 1992, relocating from their former home just around the corner on the High Street.
Now, 31 years later, the decision has been taken by owners Newsquest – which is part of the American publishing giant Gannett – to sell the home of the paper at 123 Pyle Street.
Speaking about the sale of the 3-storey office, the co-editors have today (Tuesday) said it ‘could’ be about to mark the next ‘exciting chapter’, but it is unclear where the team of editorial and sales staff will be moving to. It remains to be seen if staff will be required to work from home in the future, marking a massive shift in the historic paper’s setup.
The sale of the County Press HQ is one of the biggest changes to take place since Newsquest took over the paper 6 years ago, in July 2017.
Latest audited circulation figures have revealed that the County Press now has a circulation of just 11,575, down from 37,026 14 years ago – a near 70% decline. Audited figures have also revealed that their digital arm, countypress.co.uk, receives a monthly average of 2.2million page views – making Island Echo the Island’s biggest news website with a monthly average of 2.57million.
The property is being advertised via Hose Rhodes Dickson Commerical.
So island echo is free online, and county press has subscription …
Almost all Islanders used to have the County Press years ago. But since so many non Islanders moved here, and many not originating from even the UK then the close knit community has been shattered forever.
The Echo with it’s lively instant news, and even livelier comments options have taken over, and although I love to sit a read daily the Echo’s news, I have fond memories of the large style County Press spread out over the table, and everyone trying to read their favourite piece.
Also one thing the Echo can’t do, is be used to put under the cat’s dirt box, as was the fate of many a County Press.
Let’s hope it keeps going, but soon as anything falls into non UK hands, it fate here is not looking too good imo.
They made the whole pre press department redundant and moved the work to India, unbeknown to the shareholders.
Have you got some sort of undiagnosed mental health condition causing a hatred of all non-islanders? The demise of traditional print media is not purely an IOW problem but is happening around the world as people understandably switch to digital platforms.
Just look at Wightlink for a good example–never been the same since the Australians got their mitts on it.
The county press is a shadow of its former self. ~Poor reporting and far too many adverts.
I agree with these previous comments, but for me the moment the Isle of Wight County Press wanted me to pay to view their website and be forced to watch all those adverts plus have my details passed on to all those spamming media listings, then that’s when I permanently deleted the County Press for ever. RIP County Press.
The County press used to be a nice place to have discussions with other people.
Unfortunately it is now a place for two or three incredibly frustrated people who just spoil it for everyone.
Perhaps it could be converted to a health centre to replace Dower House?
Such exciting times !!!
Most of the stories are copied from other sources. They just don’t have the expertise of journalists. Feel very sorry for the existing staff, most be awful working there, slowly dying. You must ask yourself, do advertisers want to waste their money by advertising in such a wasteful manner ? When their money could be spent better elsewhere.
RIP COUNTY PRESS
Unfortunately, there are a lot of Island businesses that still think CP is king and throw thousands their way every year. But that is slowly changing 🙂 Ed
11,575 people buying a paper weekly definitely = more engagement that 300,000 monthly clicks.
Not really. Buying a paper once a week with the possibility of reading it cover to cover is quite a low engagement rate; even for a closed environment like the island.
I gave up buying county press when it went up in price,seams it’s all adverts and a lot thinner now,you r paying more for less
Proper journalism is dead. All we get now are sound bites. Generally assumed that people are too busy or too thick to read proper full-length newspapers but really an excuse for papers/media news outlets to not use trained journalists, and thus make more money. In fact, hordes of people get their news/indoctrination from morons on Youtube and other websites, which is a sad state of affairs.