The editor of monthly free newspaper the Plymouth Chronicle said the success of his title shows there’s “a good future for print”, likening the medium to resurgent vinyl record sales.
Chris Girdler said rather than obliterating print, technology had made publishing “so much more achievable” for small teams.
The Chronicle is delivered to 92,000 homes around its home city each month – a figure that has not changed since 2018 – and is funded wholly by advertising.
“Our emphasis is on positive news,” Girdler told Press Gazette. “We don’t get involved in the negative media coverage that, obviously, the mainstream organisations need for their clickbait or for their sales…
“I think that’s what people welcome. We often get emails from people saying: ‘Great edition, all such wonderful, positive news.’ We’re living in a world of pretty gloomy headlines at the moment, so we try to balance that locally with some good news and achievements and milestones.”
In addition to the Plymouth Chronicle, parent company Cornerstone Vision (of which Girdler is a one-third owner) publishes a glossy magazine on behalf of the Devon Chamber of Commerce and has previously handled ad sales for several Church of England newspapers. The company reported employing nine people in its most recent accounts.
What is now the Plymouth Chronicle launched in 2001 as a 16-page A4 advertising magazine distributed to 60,000 homes around the city. It became a tabloid newspaper carrying news and local information in 2010 and relaunched as the current Chronicle in 2018. The name, chosen by Girdler’s colleagues, is a nod to his old role in his twenties as editor of the Reading Chronicle, today part of Newsquest.
The Chronicle publishes four editions delivered to four different parts of the city. Although residents only receive a single copy each month, the four different editions are published and delivered on consecutive weeks: some content is common across editions while some is specific to the relevant part of the city.
The editions, often containing advertising leaflets, each go to between 20,000 and 25,000 homes, delivered by “quite a significant number of younger teenagers, like the old paper boys and girls”.
The paper’s main print rival in the city, Reach daily The Herald, had an average circulation per issue of 3,022 in 2024.
The paper’s content often focuses on upcoming events and activities in the city, as well as what’s going on with Plymouth City Council and local voluntary, community and charitable groups. The paper continuously carried four pages of council-funded health content during the height of the pandemic, which Girdler said “showed the value of print as opposed to digital…
“The city council had established there was a quite significant number of residents who don’t have access to digital or online or the web, and rely on print and the more traditional style of communication.”
But despite that revenue stream the general Covid advertising downturn had meant they’d had to downsize the business by half: Girdler comprises the whole editorial team, besides some columnists and a colleague who handles the paper’s digital presence.
Today the Chronicle’s advertisers are generally small businesses and tradesmen, although Girdler mentioned that Ikea also takes out ads.
Students ‘love’ free newspaper for its listings services
Asked how much of a runway he saw for print in the future, Girdler said: “I can remember the time when they said technology would kill print. But in fact, the advances in technology have made print so much more achievable [for] small teams of publishers and journalists.
“So I’d like to think that there’s a good future for it, because if you think about how vinyls and sales of books are back on the increase – I think there’s a sort of novelty… people, over time, perhaps turn back to trusting the old formats.”
Girdler acknowledged that generally the paper had a “more elderly readership”.
“But interestingly, we got some feedback from Plymouth University’s Students’ Union to say that students love the paper because it’s got the listings of events – everything from jumble sales through to gigs and concerts. That was an interesting encouragement.”
There are challenges for the business, however.
“It would be wrong to say that we haven’t seen a decline in advertising, because there certainly has been in more recent months,” he said, adding that the broader macroeconomic environment meant “a lot of uncertainty”.
“There’ve been a number of business failures in Plymouth like there have been all over the country – some large, some small. Everything from a large construction company down to a motorcycle dealership through to a vegan restaurant. I think it’s quite a challenging time for business at the moment.
“We’re blessed that we do have our leaflet distribution, which works well… and then we’re developing more revenue as part of a marketing package… We can offer a mix of print and digital to advertisers. But I think we’re entering into a time of quite choppy waters.”
Digital income is still small, Girdler said, but “we’re hoping that will develop”. A planned local government reorganisation could also have an impact on the Chronicle, he said.
“I think we just want to continue to serve the city, providing the population with good, positive, upbeat stories and photos, and hopefully the economic growth that the current government are pushing for will come through.”
Asked whether he ever uses AI in his work Girdler said no, but the colleague who handles their digital output uses it as a subbing tool, particularly for reformatting content for social media.
“I won’t tell you how long I’ve been in journalism,” he said. “Let’s say I started in the hot metal days.”
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