On this day

October 5, 1955

cover page of Portsmouth Evening News published on October 5, 1955

Portsmouth Evening News

The Portsmouth Evening News was founded in Portsmouth in 1877 by James Graham Niven as a daily evening paper. Niven managed the paper himself and also fulfilled the roles of reporter, editor, and distributor. It comprised 4 pages and cost a halfpenny.

In 1883 Niven sold a majority share to Samuel Storey but continued to publish the paper. Durham-born Storey had been a Liberal MP for Sunderland since 1881 and already owned the Sunderland Echo and the Tyneside Echo. He was part of a syndicate with Scots-American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, buying up newspapers with a view to furthering their political aims by strengthening the radical Liberal press. By the end of 1884 the Syndicate owned a substantial number of daily and weekly papers and when it broke up in 1885, Storey retained a controlling interest in the Portsmouth Evening News, Sunderland Echo and Northern Daily Mail.

The Evening News was run as a separate company until 1934 when it became part of Storey’s Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers Ltd.

For this newspaper, we have the following titles in, or planned for, our digital archive:

  • 1878–1959 The Evening News
  • 1959–61 News (Portsmouth, England)
  • 1959–61 News (Portsmouth, England)

This newspaper is published by National World Publishing Ltd in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It was digitised and first made available on the British Newspaper Archive in May 2, 2011 . The latest issues were added in Aug 22, 2023.