Chris Bullivant
Chris Bullivant Sr is a British newspaper publisher who with his wife Pat launched the UK's first free daily title, the Daily News, in October 1984.[1]
Having set up in excess of 74 newspapers, the Bullivants have now sold off much of their business but still run Bullivant Media, which in 2011 was the 15th-largest newspaper publisher in the country.[2] They continue to publish weekly newspapers across Warwickshire, Worcestershire and parts of the West Midlands in the southern conurbations around Birmingham and they also publish various award winning magazines [2] including Your Wedding, InsideOut, Flavour and Exclusive Homes. He also released a pair of popular broadsheet Gazettes.
In 2010 Bullivant launched a part paid-for weekly newspaper in Birmingham. Called the Birmingham Press,[3] and accompanied by a free edition, The Birmingham Free Press, it was intended to rival Trinity Mirror's Birmingham Post,[4] but after only a few months the paper went into liquidation with total debts of £347,796.[5] Bullivant blamed the newspaper's collapse on a lack of support from estate agents advertising in the city.[6] Bullivant Media Limited (Company number 06850612) was liquidated in September 2022 due to insolvency with creditor’s claims totalling just under 2 million pounds sterling.
References
Notes
- Franklin (2013), Chapter 14
- Newspaper Society Intelligence unit 1 Jan 2011
- Jon Slattery (22 June 2010). "Jon Slattery: Chris Bullivant launches Birmingham Free Press". Jon Slattery. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
- "Bullivant: Birmingham Press will work or it's my Waterloo". Press Gazette. 23 April 2010. Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
- "Bullivant Pays Out Just 2p in the Pound", Birmingham Mail, 14 July 2012, archived from the original on 11 June 2014, retrieved 18 November 2013 – via HighBeam (subscription required)
- "Bullivant admits defeat in Brum newspaper war", HoldtheFrontPage, 8 October 2010, retrieved 18 November 2013
Bibliography
- Franklin, Bob (2013), "A right free for all! Competition, soundbite journalism and developments in the local free press", in Franklin, Bob (ed.), Local Journalism and Local Media: Making the Local News (Google eBook), Routledge, ISBN 978-1-134-18119-3