A weekly newspaper in North Yorkshire is to close with news from its patch amalgamated into an edition of a sister daily.

The Filey Mercury, originally launched in the late 1980s, is to be axed with eight pages of news from the seaside town due to appear in the Saturday edition of the Scarborough Evening News.

No job losses are anticipated as a result of the closure, with the paper’s sole reporter due to become part of the Evening News’ reporting team.

Both titles are owned by Yorkshire Regional Newspapers, which is part of Johnston Press

The Mercury, which is currently published each Saturday, was launched after its then owners Emap bought Scarborough & District Newspapers from Sir Meredith Whittaker in the 1980s.

Staff at YRN were informed of the move at a briefing last Thursday. No one from the company has so far been available for comment.

Comments

Hackster (17/08/2010 11:12:09)
At a slight tangent to the story but yet again we have a newspaper company which refuses to comment. How often do we in the business get angry when companies or individuals give no comment yet almost without fail that is what we do, especially with stories like this. It’s pathetic and just demonstrates the arrogance which, IMO, has been a factor in some of the problems we have today.

The Master of Disaster (17/08/2010 11:42:54)
Shame, I cut my teeth on the Filey edition when I was a trainee back in the day when Eddie Burton was the editor.
In those days the Filey edition was just a couple of slip pages in the main book of the Scarborough Mercury – and I had to cover the patch on a Tuesday as well as working for the Evening News.
Still, happy days.

dontyaluvit (17/08/2010 12:06:39)
At least the area’s still got a proper EVENING paper instead of those lame morning offerings in other parts of the country that crawl out a day late and look as stale as yesterday’s bread in today’s fast news environment.

Sir Meredith (18/08/2010 08:55:58)
This is slightly inaccurate. The Filey Merc is/was an edition of the Ryedale Mercury, not a paper in itself, and it was instigated by an energetic young reporter called Philip ‘Studs’ Ridyard.
And the Scarborough evening News is not a proper evening newspaper – it’s printed overnight 60/70 miles away.

OlPeculier (18/08/2010 10:19:27)
I wish the SEN was a proper Evening Newspaper. Like many, it’s also printed over night in Sheffield and is available for purchase with the morning dailies.
Indeed, my parents often receive their delivered copy before the postman has arrived.

SebastianFaults (18/08/2010 11:52:59)
It may have been based on the Ryedale Merc originally, but it certainly wasn’t latterly, being based on the SEN with a few change pages and a pic spread. The sole reporter spent a day out there a week. There was no longer an office. The Ryedale Merc has a lavish (for JP) two reporters on the patch and – for now – its own office. Don’t hold your breath, though.