Celebrating 20 years serving Maidstone and Malling
The Launch
When it was launched in 1997, the Downs Mail – or the Bearsted Mail as it was known - looked more like a glorified parish magazine than a newspaper.
Eight A4 pages landed on the doormats of 12,000 houses in the
doormats of 12,000 houses in the Bearsted and surrounding localities with a second edition promised by mid-June.
It carried the strapline: “Makes the best of Bearsted and district.”
Its compact, no-frills, front-page display was an entirely deliberate design concept and it certainly chimed with residen chimed with residents into whose homes this new publication was posted by the Royal Mail.
nts into whose The Early Ye Year ears
Founder and first editor Dennis Fowle had retired at 63 and decided to start up a newspaper as a “retirement hobby” with daughter Claire Procter as its sole sales representative.
Firstly, Dennis had to learn howy,, Dennis had t to use a computer and Clair e worked from the kitchen table at her home while chasing around after three young daughters.
Commercially, the pay, , the paper was getting r esults for the advertisers – a handful of whom have stayed loyal through the years – and started to grow in size.
cially
Dennis Fowle, founder and first editor
Our 20 year story so far
far January 1997: r....
Mail Publications Ltd starts trading. It is run from home by founders Dennis Fowle (editorial) and daughter Claire Procter (sales)
April 1997: The first Bearsted
Mail rolls off the presses
June 1998: The paper is re-branded Bearsted & Downs Mail
March 1999: The paper is
rebranded Downs Mail to reflect the widening distribution
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