The Times (Malta)

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Typical The Times front page
Type	Daily newspaper
Format

Owner	Allied Newspapers Limited
Founded	1935
Political allegiance	Centre-Right
Language	English
Price	€0.50 (Monday-Saturday) €0.80 (Sunday)
Headquarters	Strickland House, 341 St. Paul Street, Valletta
Circulation	37,0000

Website: www.timesofmalta.com

The Times of Malta (also The Times) is a national newspaper published daily in Malta. Founded in 1935, the Times is the oldest daily newspaper still on sale in the Maltese archipelago, and it also has the widest circulation. The newspaper is conservative and partially directed towards coverage of the economy and finance. Holding tight to its Christian values, the newspaper also succeeds to keep its independence in the political arena. The popular Sunday edition forms an important part of the local cultural arena.

Since January 1, 2003, the Times of Malta launched a new formula, less formal and especially more modern. The result of four years of efforts has led the daily newspaper of "reference" of the Maltese press to multiply its many supplements. The paper's website is one of the best conceived in the Maltese press, putting online the whole of the daily newspaper, as well as archival search both within a four month time-frame as well as the historical archive. Reuters dispatches supplement local information.

The Sunday issue of the newspaper is called ‘The Sunday Times’.

[edit] History

The history of The Times of Malta is linked with that of its publishing house, Allied Newspapers Limited. This institution has a history going back to the 1920s, when it pioneered journalism and the printing industry in Malta. It all started with the publication, by Lord Strickland, of Malta's first evening newspaper in Maltese, Il-Progress. This was a four-page daily with its own printing offices in what was then 10A, Strada Reale, Valletta. The name "Progress" is retained to this day by the commercial sister of Allied Newspapers Limited, Progress Press Company Limited, formed in 1946.

Bilingual journalism, Maltese and English, was introduced in Malta with the publication, on February 3, 1922, of an English supplement to Il-Progress. The Times of Malta and Il-Progress lasted till March 1, 1929. The English supplement then became The Times of Malta Weekly (forerunner of The Sunday Times of Malta). The Maltese side was named Ix-Xemx, later changed to Id-Dehen and later still to Il-Berqa, first published on January 29, 1932. Il-Berqa ceased publication on November 30, 1968. In February 1931, Progress Press moved from Strada Reale to 341, St Paul Street, Valletta, the present site of Allied Newspapers Limited, also known as Strickland House.

As readership of the English supplement to Il-Progress soared, Lord Strickland was quick to see that there was room for an English daily. This would happen so long as the new publication achieved and maintained a high standard of public service in information. The first issue of The Times of Malta was published on August 7, 1935 under menacing war clouds as Italy planned the invasion of Abyssinia, which began in October of that year. On September 2, 1935, Mabel Strickland, who was a founder member of Allied Malta Newspapers Limited and formed part of the first Board of Directors, became the first editor of The Times of Malta. She also edited The Sunday Times of Malta from 1935 to 1950 when she was succeeded by the late George Sammut who retired in 1966. Anthony Montanaro was the next editor. He retired on March 1, 1991.

On August 6, 1960, the 25th anniversary of The Times of Malta, Strickland wrote that The Times of Malta, whilst originally a party paper, had became a national newspaper. The paper won for itself a reputation for objective reporting whilst upholding its own strongly held editorial opinion. Strickland's editorship covered the difficult years of World War II. Nevertheless, none of the newspapers forming part of the Group ever missed an issue in spite of continuous bombing and all kinds of shortages in the siege years between 1940 and 1943. The building was bombed twice, receiving a direct hit on April 7, 1942, when sixteen rooms where demolished but, miraculously, sparing the printing machines.

The Times has only had four other editors. Thomas Hedley took over from Strickland in 1950. He edited the paper through the traumatic years of political and industrial change culminating in Malta's Independence in 1964. He retired in 1965. Under the editorship of Charles Grech Orr, The Times kept up the tradition of never missing an issue when twice hit by industrial action in 1973 and when arsonists burned the building down on October 15, 1979. That date came to be known as Black Monday. In the face of serious danger, the editor and his staff had to abandon the building and go over another press in the island, Independence Press, where they started work all over again. The paper was out on the street as usual the following morning, reduced in size but a triumph for freedom of expression.

Grech Orr retired in 1989. He was succeeded by Ray Bugeja. In 1993 Victor Aquilina became editor, taking over the task of keeping up the journalistic standard achieved by The Times newspapers.