The Comet is a weekly newspaper covering the English towns of Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock, as well as the surrounding villages in north Hertfordshire and south-east Bedfordshire.

[1] It is published each Thursday in three editions[5]—one concentrates on the Stevenage area, another focuses on Hitchin and a third pays particular attention to Letchworth and Baldock.

[7] The paper was formed in May 1971 as the successor to the long-established Hertfordshire Pictorial, a paid-for weekly whose three editions covered Letchworth and Baldock, Hitchin and Stevenage.

[1] The three editions of The Comet are offered free of charge on the paper's website as "e-editions" on the same day as publication.

[6] Under Isted's editorship, The Comet was named the UK's "free newspaper of the year" at the Regional Press Awards in 2007.