The Baptist Times

Last updated
The Baptist Times
Owner Baptist Union of Great Britain
Founded1855;170 years ago (1855)
LanguageEnglish
CountryUnited Kingdom
ISSN 0005-5786
Website www.baptisttimes.co.uk

The Baptist Times is a website owned by the Baptist Union of Great Britain which reports on the Baptist Church in Britain.

Contents

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.[ citation needed ]

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

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Field, Clive D (26 November 2011). "Baptist Times (1855-2011)". British Religion in Numbers. University of Manchester. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 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.
  3. "Highams Park Baptist Church | the Baptist Times".
  4. Lakshmanan, Ravie (2019-11-14). "265 Indian fake news sites caught pushing anti-Pakistan propaganda". The Next Web. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  5. 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.