Camden New Journal

The Camden New Journal has its origins in 1872, when the Holloway Press began. In 1875, the newspaper was renamed the North Metropolitan and Holloway Press before becoming the Holloway Press in 1880, the Islington & Holloway Press in 1923, and the North London Press from 1942. From 1964, separate editions of the North London Press were published for Islington and Camden, before the publications separated in February 1971 to form the Holloway & Islington Journal and the Camden Journal, the former being discontinued in 1974. Camden Labour backed the journalists and on 3 January 1981 they helped distribute the first edition of Save the Journal. A campaign was launched that was backed by journalists at the Hornsey Journal and Islington Gazette and NUJ members in Nuneaton, Leamington Spa, Rugby, Haverfordwest, Ammanford and London's suburban papers. The campaign succeeded, with the publication being turned into a free newspaper and re-launched as the Camden New Journal on 25 March 1982. The paper launched with eight full time admin and editorial staff, and others contributing their services, including sub-editor and designer Renee Oldfield, formerly of the Enfield Gazette, and her husband Irving, retired chief press officer at the National Coal Board, competing against its long established competitors, the St Pancras Chronicle and the Hampstead and Highgate Express. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Camden New Journal set up a food aid van project in which the paper played a role in getting food to those at risk of going hungry. As of 2021, the Camden New Journal has a distribution of 50,000, which includes door-to-door deliveries and pick-up bins around the borough of Camden. In March 2023, to mark International Women's Day, Issue 2120 was written exclusively by women. The 'Not Just One Day' edition, edited by Anna Lamche, had articles written by regular journalists Frankie Lister-Fell, Izzy Rowley and Charlotte Chambers, in addition to contributions from notable women such as Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq, Liberal Democrat politician Luisa Porritt, author Kathy Lette, Camden Council leader Georgia Gould, journalist Joan Bakewell, author Bonnie Greer, writer Joanna Briscoe and Green Party Co-leader Sian Berry AM. The sports pages, written by Catherine Etoe, covered news from sporting events featuring women. ==Content==

Now part of the New Journal Enterprises group, In addition to local news stories, the paper covers arts and features, local politics in the Peeps column and sport. The paper also includes a letters page and a diary page, penned by John Gulliver. Richard Osley has been editor of the publication since 2021. == Awards ==

In 2008, journalist Paul Keilthy was nominated in both the Reporter Of The Year and Feature Writer Of The Year categories at the Press Gazette awards. Richard Osley was also shortlisted for Feature Writer Of The Year. Journalists Dan Carrier and Simon Wroe were nominated in 2009 for the same award. William McLennan was named weekly reporter of the year at the Regional Press Awards 2018. The newspaper was nominated for Newspaper Of The Year for regional newspapers with high circulations. It was named Free Newspaper of The Year at Press Gazettes national industry awards in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2018, 2019 and 2021. It was nominated in 2002, 2004 and 2020. In 2020, the award went to sister title the Islington Tribune. == Editors ==

1982 – 2021: Eric Gordon 2021 – present: Richard Osley == Eric Gordon ==

The Camden New Journal was launched by Eric Ephraim Gordon in March 1982. Gordon was born on 28 May 1931 and grew up in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, where his parents, Samuel and Sarah Gordon, ran a newspaper shop. In 1969, following surgery for cancer, he negotiated a cleverly worded 'confession', admitting to being anti-Marxist and bourgeois, but not a spy. He was the Camden New Journal founding and only editor, celebrating the 2000th issue in 2020, and continued to work on the publication until his death. The Camden New Journal deputy editor, Richard Osley, wrote, "As editor of one of the last independent titles in the UK, he was proud of the newspaper's freedom from large groups and championed a co-op style structure, warning that papers would struggle to survive if they had to answer to faraway group executives or distant shareholders seeking dividends each year." Legacy Before Gordon's death, he set out a vision to set up a new management structure for the newspaper. He proposed the idea of an outside body of trustees to represent the community and to ensure the newspaper followed, as faithfully as possible, the aims and principles that led to its birth in 1982. Following Gordon's death, the intention is to ensure the newspaper can not be bought by one person who could change its focus towards making a profit; true to Gordon's original aim of only covering the costs to allow for the publication of a "campaigning, open-to-all newspaper". == Westminster Extra ==

The Westminster Extra, also known as the Extra, began as a pull-out in its sister paper the Camden New Journal as the West End Extra. The Extra was formed by former Camden New Journal editor, Eric Gordon, after seeing a gap in the market for a 'local, free to read and stubbornly independent' newspaper in the West End, and in 1994 the first stand-alone edition was launched. The newspaper was free from dispensers across Covent Garden, Soho, Marylebone and Mayfair, as well as being sold at selected newsagents for 17p. The paper has covered major national events, such as the Admiral Duncan pub bombings in 1999 and the 2005 7/7 bombings, as well as local issues, including the aftermath of the Shirley Porter Homes For Votes scandal. The Extra covers the entire City of Westminster and is produced from the New Journal Camden Town office. Despite the paper's name, it also includes Kensington and Chelsea in its list of areas covered. The paper includes a letters page and a diary column, Harrington, named after former literary editor Illtyd Harrington, Ken Livingstone's former deputy on the Greater London Council. In February 2023, the Extra published its 1,500th edition. ==New Journal Enterprises group==

The Camden New Journal, Islington Tribune, Westminster Extra, and The Review are all publications of New Journal Enterprises. The Islington Tribune, launched in 2003, is a widely-read local newspaper in the London Borough of Islington, contributed to by Koos Couvée and Joe Cooper. Former reporters include Joel Taylor, Kim Janssen and Andrew Walker, who works for the BBC, as well as former Camden New Journal deputy editor Andrew Johnson. Peter Gruner, an award-winning environment journalist who previously worked for the Evening Standard, worked for the title until 2015. The Westminster Extra (formerly known as the West End Extra, a name it retains online), which covers the entire City of Westminster, launched in 2005 and is also produced from the New Journal Camden Town office. == Other newspapers in the neighbouring area ==

• Barnet Times • Brent & Kilburn Times • Hampstead & Highgate Express • Islington Gazette • Westminster Extra ==See also==