One of the UK’s best-performing weeklies, Northcliffe’s Brentwood Gazette, has recruited 20 new columnists in its latest bid to boost circulation in the Essex town.

A new section called Gazette People is being launched as a development of the paper’s popular “Reader Writer” section, in which readers send in articles to be published in the Gazette.

Gazette People has launched with 20 columnists spanning a range of subjects including food, gardening, politics, history, fashion and celebrity.