Swindon Advertiser
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | Newsquest Media Group |
| Founded | 1854 |
| Headquarters | Old Town, Swindon |
| Website | swindonadvertiser.co.uk |
The Swindon Advertiser (colloquially known by locals as 'the Adver') is a daily tabloid newspaper, published in Swindon. The newspaper was founded in 1854, and had a circulation in 2006 of 22,321.
It claims to have been the UK's first provincial 'penny-paper'.
It is owned by Newsquest, the UK subsidiary of U.S.-based Gannett Company.
It is the original of the four newspapers headquartered in the Newsquest Wiltshire building in Victoria Road, Swindon, the others being three weeklies:
The Swindon Advertiser was founded in 1854 by William Morris (Great Grandfather of Desmond Morris). Originally intended to be a weekly paper, His aim was to produce a newspaper "that would act as a mouthpiece for the poor." Morris decided to print one issue a month due to the Stamp Tax laws at the time only applying to newspapers published every 28 days.
It was originally printed as a broadsheet on 6 February 1854 and titled the "Swindon Advertiser and Monthly Record" using a hand press in his father's shop in Wood Street. Morris was sole writer, editor, printer and also delivered it personally, selling each copy for a penny. Using the inclusion of advertisements from local businesses, the second edition doubled in size.
Other newspaper companies were influenced by Morris' example of a penny priced paper and quickly produced their own in the region and ultimately throughout the country, resulting in the Government amending the Stamp Tax laws to a more favourable version. The paper became published weekly due to this change. In 1855 Morris could afford to move the publication to new premises in Victoria Road where it has remained. Morris funded the building of Newspaper House and added a printing shop to the rear.
Morris became infamous in some circles for his scathing and often vitriolic editorials, with one editorial about an incident at Coate Water in 1861 leading to effigies of him and copies of his paper being burned in the town.
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