Editing Archant (section)

===2000 to present===
[[File:Prospect House, Norwich.png|thumb|Prospect House, the current headquarters of Archant.]]
The launch of a county magazine in [[Norfolk]] in 2000 saw the beginning of what is now '''Archant Life''', the country's biggest publisher of county magazines. The division was subsequently scaled through multiple acquisitions in the [[North West England|North West]], the [[Cotswolds]] and the [[Southern England|South]] and [[South East England|South East of England]].

In March 2002, ECNG changed its name to Archant, prompted by the company's broadening geographic scope and growing range of its activities.

In December 2003, Archant purchased 27 weekly newspapers from [[Independent News & Media]] in two separate deals worth up to £62&nbsp;million. The titles included the ''Hackney Gazette'', ''Islington Gazette'', the ''East London Advertiser'', the ''Barking & Dagenham Post'', the ''Bexley Times'' and the ''Bromley Times''.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/26490|title=Archant's London deal cleared|access-date=3 March 2013|publisher=Press Gazette|date=4 August 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508070401/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/26490|archive-date=8 May 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In April 2007, Archant Scotland's eight newspaper titles were sold to Johnston Press for around £11&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/36654|title=Johnston acquires Archant's Scottish titles|access-date=3 March 2013|publisher=Press Gazette|date=19 January 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508110815/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/36654|archive-date=8 May 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In February 2008, Archant acquired Compass Magazines and its four monthly regional magazines in Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/40405|title=Archant Life expands portfolio with four new magazines|access-date=3 March 2013|publisher=Press Gazette|date=27 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508093526/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/40405|archive-date=8 May 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In September 2009, Archant Print completed an £8&nbsp;million project to bring its press centre in Norwich up to ten printing towers with associated equipment.

In November 2009, Archant launched Great British Life, a website portal. In the same month, Archant launched [[Subscription Save]], a dedicated magazine subscriptions portal for their publications.

In May 2010, Archant launched ''Cambridge First'', a weekly newspaper in Cambridge.

In June 2010, Archant acquired [[KOS Media|KOS Media Publishing Ltd]], the publisher of ''[[Kent on Sunday]]'' and a series of free weekly newspapers, magazines, websites and mobile products, for an undisclosed sum.<ref>[http://www.archant.co.uk/news_article.aspx?aid=100 Archant acquires KOS Media] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100813232930/http://www.archant.co.uk/news_article.aspx?aid=100 |date=13 August 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1011348/Archant-takes-full-control-publisher-Kent-Sunday/|title=Archant takes full control of publisher of Kent on Sunday|access-date=3 March 2013|publisher=Media Week|date=22 June 2010}}</ref>

In February 2011, Archant London launched an all-new news & information website for London – London24.

In May 2011, Archant Life acquired the ''Wye Valley Life'' and ''Life in The Marches'' titles from Wye Valley Media Ltd.

In November 2011, Archant completed a change to its legal structure to simplify the trading companies into one single legal entity, now called Archant Community Media Limited. This does not change the name of the group which remains as Archant Ltd.

In January 2012, Archant launched the unique iwitness24 community news platform that aims to transform the way it gathers news. It is designed to allow readers to contribute pictures and videos in a quick and easy way.

In January 2013, saw a move into local TV with the launch of [[Mustard TV]] online in Norwich.

In August 2013, Archant announced the completion of the acquisition of www.planningfinder.com.

In July 2016 Archant announced a new weekly 'pop-up newspaper', ''[[The New European]]'', designed in response to the [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|UK's vote to leave the European Union]]. With a cover price of £2, it was initially intended to run for four editions only;<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/uks-first-ever-pop-up-newspaper-the-new-european-launched-response-brexit-a7117691.html|title=UK's first ever 'pop up newspaper' to be launched in response to Brexit|date=3 July 2016|newspaper=The Independent|first=Will|last=Worley|access-date=18 May 2020}}</ref>

In August 2017 Mustard TV closed, having been sold to the [[That's TV]] Group.

In December 2017, Archant won a €676,000.00 grant from Google's [[Digital News Initiative]]. The project, Local Recall, aims to bring 150 years of newspapers back to life through the latest technology; chatbots. Archant, in partnership with local artificial intelligence leaders ubisend,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blog.ubisend.com/discover-chatbots/google-ubisend-archant|title=Backed by Google: ubisend and Archant Bring Old Newspapers to Life|date=15 December 2017}}</ref> take on this two-year challenge to make their archived newspapers available via voice and text chatbots.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/dnifund/dni-projects/local-recall-modernising-archive-content-round-4|title=Local Recall - Modernising archive content |date=December 2017}}</ref> However, as of May 2023, the project website is no longer available and redirects to the EDP24 homepage.  No explanation has been given for this, or where the money has gone.

In September 2019 Archant announced its intention to out-source all newspaper printing to Newsprinters (Broxbourne) Ltd. from 10 November 2019, and close the Archant Print Center in Thorpe St. Andrew's Norwich, bringing to an end 174 years of newspaper printing in the city.   In a letter to staff, Archant said the decision had been taken due to "changes" in the newspaper industry and the move will provide "substantial cost savings".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-49825575|title=Publishing group to close printworks|date=2019-09-25|access-date=2019-10-19|language=en-GB}}</ref> Approximately 95 Norwich Jobs will be lost as a direct result of this change.

In January 2020 Archant sold its headquarters, Prospect House, to regional insurance firm Alan Boswell Group.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.alanboswell.com/news/alan-boswell-group-to-move-into-norwich-city-centre/|title=Alan Boswell Group to move into Norwich city centre|publisher=Alan Boswell Group|date=2019-11-07|language=en-GB}}</ref>

In July 2020, Archant announced it had put itself up for sale and was willing to plug a funding deficit exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic's disastrous impact on industry-wide advertising revenues.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-new-european-publisher-archant-hunts-new-owners-12020958|title=Coronavirus: New European publisher Archant hunts new owners|publisher=Sky News|date=4 July 2020|access-date=10 July 2020}}</ref> 

On 30 August it was announced that the operational units of Archant had been sold to private equity firm [[Rcapital Partners]], (and the pension funds transferred to UK Government [[Pension Protection Fund]]); the holding companies were put into administration, making the existing shares worthless.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mayhew |first=Freddy |date=2020-08-28 |title=Archant bought by private equity: Shareholders wiped out, government set to take over pension fund |url=https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/archant-bought-out-new-owner-shareholders/ |access-date=2020-09-03 |website=[[Press Gazette]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

In March 2022, Rcapital sold the group to American media giant [[Gannett]] via its British subsidiary [[Newsquest]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.newsquest.co.uk/news/newsquest-media-group-acquires-archant|title= Newsquest Media Group acquires Archant |last= |first= |date= 18 March 2022|website= |publisher= Newsquest|access-date= 9 May 2022|quote=}}</ref>