The Licensee and Morning Advertiser is to be published by a new company set up by trade charity the Society of Licensed Victuallers in a joint venture with William Reed, publisher of The Grocer. William Reed took over the day-to-day management of the paper and its associated publishing and exhibitions activities on Monday. The Licensee and Morning Advertiser is the oldest trade newspaper in the UK and has been serving the pub sector since 1794. For many years it was published as a daily paper and is rich in the history of the industry. It was the first newspaper in Fleet Street to take the Reuters wire service. Charles Dickens once wrote for the paper, which was founded primarily to generate funds for the SLV. William Reed md Charles Reed said: "We are excited and proud to have the opportunity of working as part of a team to take The Licensee forward. We've been publishing The Grocer since 1862, but we're relatively new compared with The Licensee and Morning Advertiser." Jerry Gosney, William Reed's director of publishing, who has assumed day-to-day management of The Licensee at its Slough offices, said: "The Licensee has a great reputation and we want to build carefully on that to secure the title well into the future. "We will be taking a long hard look at the paper and its position in the market, working closely with the current team and taking soundings from readers and advertisers in order to establish the best way forward." SLV's chief executive, Colin Wheeler, said: "Now that the SLV has extended its reach to all who work in the licensed trade, not just licensees, combined with the many changes in the trade, both now and in the future, we need to explore new and wider markets. "The synergies between The Licensee and the Morning Advertiser and the strong development of The Grocer and other William Reed publications provide a natural fit for the partnership." The Licensee and Morning Advertiser, which now publishes twice a week, moved out of London to its offices in Slough in the early 1990s. The Pub, Club and Leisure Exhibition and Free House magazine will also transfer into the new company, called The Licensee and Morning Advertiser Limited. {{NEWS }}