The Baptist Times
| Owner | Baptist Union of Great Britain |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1855 |
| Language | English |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| ISSN | 0005-5786 |
| Website | www |
The Baptist Times is a website owned by the Baptist Union of Great Britain which reports on the Baptist Church in Britain.
It was originally a newspaper, printed from 24 January 1855 as The Freeman.[1][2] From 24 February 1899 it was The Baptist Times and Freeman.[1][2] In 1910 it merged with The Baptist.[1] It was renamed The Baptist Times in 1925.[1][2] Circulation at its height was 35,000; by 2011 it had fallen to 6,000.[1]
It was the free church newspaper which had been published for longest, followed by The Methodist Times.[1][2] Old issues are interesting to social historians as well as to historians of religion, as they contain news about current affairs and "poems, book reviews, stories for children and advertisements".[2]
It won the Churches Media Council's Andrew Cross Award for the best regional paper, for its production of a daily paper for the Baptist World Congress in 2005.
Due to falling circulation and difficulties of selling advertising space, the paper ceased print publication in November 2011, with plans for a retrospective to be published in January 2012. The website launched in 2012.[3]
Fake news controversy
In November 2019, an EU Watchdog uncovered evidence that The Baptist Times was among 265 media outlets which had been used by an India-based influence network to spread disinformation about Pakistan.[4][5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Field, Clive D (26 November 2011). "Baptist Times (1855-2011)". British Religion in Numbers. University of Manchester. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
- ^ a b c d e Burgoyne, Emily (2 July 2024). "From the Angus ...". Baptist Quarterly. 55 (3): 166–168. doi:10.1080/0005576X.2024.2355676. ISSN 0005-576X. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
- ^ "Highams Park Baptist Church | the Baptist Times".
- ^ Lakshmanan, Ravie (2019-11-14). "265 Indian fake news sites caught pushing anti-Pakistan propaganda". The Next Web. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
- ^ Kapur, Manavi (13 November 2019). "A European NGO says a global network of fake media outlets set up the EU MPs' Kashmir visit". Quartz India. Retrieved 2019-11-24.