Pontypool Free Press

The Pontypool Free Press

Pontypool Free Press front page 11 June 1859
Type	Weekly newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	Newsquest
Founder(s)	David Walkinshaw
Publisher	Newsquest Media (Southern) Ltd
Deputy editor	Nicole Garnon
Managing editors	Kevin Ward
Founded	1859
Headquarters	Cardiff Road, Maesglas, Newport NP20 3QN
Circulation	5,022 (as of 2013)
Sister newspapers	South Wales Argus, Penarth Times, Barry & District News
ISSN	1757-3076
OCLC number	500055627
Website	Free Press

The Pontypool Free Press is an English language weekly regional newspaper that was originally published in Pontypool, as the Pontypool Free Press and Herald of the Hills, in 1859 and is circulated in Pontypool and the surrounding area of Torfaen, in south-east Wales.

The Pontypool Free Press and Herald of the Hills was established in 1859, with the first edition on 5 March 1859. It was printed and published in Pontypool, in English, by the proprietor David Walkinshaw. In 1877 Henry Hughes Junior agreed to purchase the paper, along with the Pontypool Local Register and the Pontypool Almanack, for £1,000 from Walkinshaw.

The name of the newspaper changed on 5 July 1879, to The Pontypool Free Press, and on 2 April 1909 to The Free Press of Monmouthshire.

In the 1980s, Don Touhig, later to become the Member of Parliament for Islwyn and a life peer, was editor of the newspaper. Touhig worked on the paper from 1968 to 1994, starting as a journalist, and ending as general manager of the Free Press Group.

An edition covering Chepstow was added in 1980, with other editions added later, giving four titles produced by the Free Press Group:

In 1997 the Bailey Newspaper Group, the then owners of the Free Press Group, was bought by Southern Newspapers, based in Southampton. In 1998 Southern Newspapers changed its name to Newscom and, in 2000, was bought by the Newsquest Media Group.

In November 2008 Newsquest Media (Southern) Ltd merged the Abergavenny, Chepstow, and Monmouth editions into one edition covering Monmouthshire called The Free Press. The Pontypool Free Press continued as a separate edition.

In November 2011 Newsquest moved the editorial staff to its regional headquarters, at the offices of the South Wales Argus, in Newport, closing its offices in Pontypool and Chepstow. Soon after, Torfaen County Borough Council offered the paper an office in its headquarters in the civic centre, Pontypool, and journalists now use the office as a drop-in centre every Friday.