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Tindle Group
Company typePrivate
IndustryMedia
Founded1950s
HeadquartersFarnham, Surrey
Area served
Key people
Number of employees
250
Divisions
Websitewww.tindlenews.co.uk

The Tindle Group is a British multimedia company operating regional newspapers and radio stations across the British Isles.

It publishes over 200 local newspapers in the United Kingdom, a number of which are over a hundred years old.[citation needed]

The company is based in Farnham, Surrey, under CEO Danny Cammiade.[when?][citation needed]

It is owned by the Tindle family. Founder Sir Ray Tindle was a "strong believer in 'ultra-local' journalism",[1] a culture which the company still follows today.[citation needed] He remained the company's president until his death in 2022.[2] His son, Owen Tindle, took over as chairman in 2017.[3]

Newspapers

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The Tindle newspaper empire started out in the 1950s, when Sir Ray Tindle acquired the Tooting & Balham Gazette with his £300 demob payment after his time serving during the Second World War.[4]

At the company's peak, Tindle Newspapers owned and operated more than 220 local titles.[citation needed]

The following is a partial list of newspapers owned by the company:[5]

In 2019, Tindle Newspaper Group closed four of their local newspapers.[7]

Radio stations

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Main article: Tindle Radio

In the 1970s, Sir Ray Tindle was an early investor in Capital.[8] In 1998, he sold back his shares in the company to buy Island FM in Guernsey, the first local station to form part of the Tindle group.

The company continued to grow and acquire a dozen stations in England and Wales. Tindle sold its UK radio assets to Anglian Radio in a management buyout in 2013. The stations were then sold on to Celador and later Bauer.[9]

Tindle continues to own and operate Island FM, as well as Channel 103 in Jersey, Midlands 103 in Ireland, and Soleil Radio which broadcasts across the Channel Islands.[10]

Criticism

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In 2003, as the Iraq War started, the owner of the Tindle Newspaper Group, Sir Ray Tindle, issued an order to his newspapers that they could no longer cover anti-war protests.[11] This decision was controversial and was attacked as censorship by a number of commentators, including the National Union of Journalists General Secretary Jeremy Dear.[12]

References

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  1. ^ "Tindle Newspaper Group". Hold the Front Page. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  2. ^ "Sir Ray Tindle, former News Letter owner, dies at age of 95". www.newsletter.co.uk. Belfast News Letter. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Owen Tindle succeeds father Sir Ray as Tindle chairman – Journalism News from HoldtheFrontPage". HoldtheFrontPage. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  4. ^ "History". tindlenews.co.uk. Tindle Newspapers Ltd. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019.
  5. ^ "News Brands". tindlenews.co.uk. Tindle Press Holdings Ltd. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Tindle Newspapers purchases Woking News & Mail". InPublishing. 4 October 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Tindle Newspapers closes Essex-based Yellow Advertiser series". 26 June 2019.
  8. ^ "History". Tindle Newspapers Ltd. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019.
  9. ^ "Celador Radio takes control of Anglian Radio". RadioToday. 19 January 2017.
  10. ^ "Our Brands". Tindle Radio.
  11. ^ Full text of article in Totnes Times
  12. ^ Too Late For Debate?
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