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May 19, 2005updated 22 Nov 2022 3:25pm

Leek paper defies critics as it passes 100th issue

By Press Gazette

Independently
owned weekly Your Leek Paper marked its 100th issue this week after
breaking through the 5,000 circulation barrier for the first time.

The
Staffordshire-based title was set up by editor Gary Shenton and other
former Leek Post & Times employees using redundancy cheques.

Two years on he claims the paper is turning a profit and now employs 20 people, three of which are journalists.

Over
the past two years the wellestablished Leek Post & Times has kept
circulation more or less stable at 11,412, proving that a small market
town can support two paid-for weekly papers.

Shenton said the paper averages between 48 and 56 pages and the website often has 8,000 hits a day.

He
said: “We started this with thousands not millions and it just goes to
show what you can achieve if you work hard. We don’t make a lot of
money but we certainly make a profit and we enjoy what we are doing.

“We’ve proved the people wrong who said we were only going to last six weeks.”

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