Walsall Observer

The Walsall Observer was a weekly newspaper, published in Walsall in the West Midlands of England from 1868 to 2009.

History

Founded October 24, 1868^[1] by brothers John and William Griffin as The Walsall Observer, and General District Advertiser, it became a regional weekly. By 1962, as the Walsall Observer and South Staffordshire Chronicle, it was the only surviving paper in Walsall, having absorbed such competitors as the Walsall Advertiser.^[2] By 1990 it had become a free newspaper.^[3] By 2006, it had gone from nine journalists on staff twenty-five years earlier (i.e., circa 1981) to one senior, one trainee, and an editor shared with two other weekly papers; and, the National Union of Journalists charged, was reduced to a situation where "the paper largely regurgitates submitted material and press releases with little or no challenge.".^[4] In 2009, owners Trinity Mirror closed it down along with several other Midlands weeklies.

Former reporters for the Observer include David Ennals, Baron Ennals; Steve Green; Jane Kelly; Ruth Elliott-Smith and Richard Tomkins.