The Nottingham Evening Post was founded on May 1st 1878 by Thomas Forman. It was Nottingham’s first evening paper, comprised 4 pages and cost a halfpenny. Forman was originally from Lincolnshire, but had been in printing in Nottingham since 1848. He already published the Conservative Nottingham Daily Guardian, established in 1861 and the printing business was a considerable size by the 1870’s. Forman’s sons were all involved in the company and Jesse became the first editor of the Evening Post. In the first issue he emphasised that the Evening Post would be a news paper and “the exclusive organ of no religious or political party”.

The Forman family continued its association with the Evening Post into the twentieth century. It was increased in size to 6 pages in 1902 and the front page gave way to news items instead of advertisements in 1914. T. Bailey Forman Ltd bought the Nottingham Journal and the Nottingham Evening News in 1953 and incorporated the Evening News into the Evening Post in 1963.