Manchester Evening News

Manchester Evening News

The Manchester Evening News is an English daily newspaper published each week day and on Saturdays. The Manchester Evening News is distributed in Greater Manchester and surrounding areas.  It sells around 115,000 copies per day and has a readership approximately 400,000 people, making the Manchester Evening News one of the  most widely read regional newspaper in the UK.

The Manchester Evening News was first published in 1868 by Mitchell Henry as part of his Parliamentary election campaign. Shortly after the election the newspaper was sold to John Edward Taylor, the son of the founder and owner of the Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian). Taylor brought his brother-in-law Peter Allen in as a partner in the Evening News; after Taylor's death in 1907 the Guardian was sold to its editor C. P. Scott while the Evening News passed into the hands of the Allen family. Scott's Guardian bought the Evening News in the 1920s. From that time the two newspapers have always had a common owner – it is currently one of 62 newspapers owned by the Guardian Media Group. Despite its "evening" title, the newspaper began publication of a morning edition in November 2004, a controversial move which brought union members to the brink of strike action over new work rotas.

In March 2005 the paper launched a cut down evening version of the paper titled MEN Lite which was distributed free to commuters within Manchester city centre. Due to low city centre sales of the 35p Evening News, the MEN Lite brand was dropped on May 2nd 2006 and was replaced with a free version of the Manchester Evening News. Even though the MEN is given away in the City Centre, the newspaper still retails for 38p in the suburbs. In December 2006, the paper also began free distribution at Manchester Airport.