It is owned by the Tindle family. Founder Sir Ray Tindle was a "strong believer in 'ultra-local' journalism",[1] a culture which the company still follows today.[citation needed] He remained the company's president until his death in 2022.[2] His son, Owen Tindle, took over as chairman in 2017.[3]
Newspapers
The Tindle newspaper empire started out in the 1950s, when Sir Ray Tindle acquired the Tooting & Balham Gazette with his £300 demob payment after his time serving during the Second World War.[4]
At the company's peak, Tindle Newspapers owned and operated more than 220 local titles.[citation needed]
The following is a partial list of newspapers owned by the company:[5]
In the 1970s, Sir Ray Tindle was an early investor in Capital.[8] In 1998, he sold back his shares in the company to buy Island FM in Guernsey, the first local station to form part of the Tindle group.
The company continued to grow and acquire a dozen stations in England and Wales. Tindle sold its UK radio assets to Anglian Radio in a management buyout in 2013. The stations were then sold on to Celador and later Bauer.[9]
Tindle continues to own and operate Island FM, as well as Channel 103 in Jersey, Midlands 103 in Ireland, and Soleil Radio which broadcasts across the Channel Islands.[10]
Criticism
In 2003, as the Iraq War started, the owner of the Tindle Newspaper Group, Sir Ray Tindle, issued an order to his newspapers that they could no longer cover anti-war protests.[11] This decision was controversial and was attacked as censorship by a number of commentators, including the National Union of Journalists General Secretary Jeremy Dear.[12]
