The newspaper was distributed either by delivery through letterboxes on a Sunday morning, or more recently given out at local supermarkets, newsagents and other local points of interest.[1]
The paper was published by LSN Media Ltd which was previously owned by Frank Branston. Branston, who founded the newspaper in 1977,[2] went on to become the first directly elected mayor of the borough of Bedford in 2002. Branston sold his share of LSN to Iliffe News and Media in 2005.[3]
In 2012, Local World acquired Iliffe News & Media from Yattendon Group,[4] and in turn this was acquired by Trinity Mirror. The newspaper's last edition was on 1 October 2017,[5] (one of 40 local newspapers to close that year[6]) and was replaced by a midweek newspaper with less emphasis on news and more on leisure activities called Bedfordshire Midweek, however this was closed after eight months of publication.[7]
Style
The style of journalism was generally more sensationalist than a typical local paper. Its front page stories were often picked up by the national press over the years, including a story about dead bodies being stored in a chapel at Bedford Hospital rather than a morgue in 2001.[8] A story about a teenager being banned for life from the United States after insulting Barack Obama received worldwide attention in 2010.[9][10][11][12]
Online media
Bedfordshire on Sunday published most of its news online for free, but Trinity Mirror shut the sites down shortly after the closure of the print edition.[citation needed]
