 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | National World |
| Founder | Francis Joy |
| Editor | Ben Lowry |
| Founded | September 1737; 288 years ago (1737-09) |
| Political alignment | British unionism[1] |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Suite 305 Glandore, Arthur House, 41 Arthur Street |
| City | Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Circulation | 5,858 (as of 2024)[2] |
| Website | newsletter |
TheNews Letter is one ofNorthern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldestEnglish-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in September 1737.[3][4][5] The newspaper's editorial stance and readership, while originallyrepublican at the time of its inception,[6]: 134–164 is nowunionist.[1] Its primary competitors are theBelfast Telegraph andThe Irish News.
TheNews Letter has changed hands several times since the mid-1990s, and is now owned byNational World. It was formerly known as theBelfast News Letter, but its coverage spans the whole of Northern Ireland (and oftenGreat Britain and theRepublic of Ireland), so the wordBelfast does not appear on the masthead any more.[7]
Founded in 1737, theNews Letter was first printed inJoy's Entry in Belfast. It is one of a series of narrow alleys in the city centre, and is currently home to Henry's Pub (formerly McCracken's) – named after Henry Joy McCracken, an Irish Presbyterian and a leading member in the north of Ireland of the republican Society of theUnited Irishmen, and the grandson of theNews Letter's founder.
The Joy family were ofHuguenot descent and were very active in the life of 18th-century Belfast, being noted for compiling materials about its history. Francis Joy, who founded the paper, had come to Belfast early in the century from the County Antrim village ofKillead. In Belfast, he married the daughter of the townsovereign (mayor), and set up practice as an attorney.
In 1737, in settlement of a debt, he obtained a small printing press and used it to publish the town's first newspaper in Bridge Street. The family later bought a paper mill inBallymena, and were able to produce enough paper not only for their own publication but for the whole ofUlster.[8][6]
The earliest available edition of theNews Letter that survives is from 3 October 1738 (which is equivalent to 14 October in the modern calendar).[9]
Samples from that antiquated edition include reports about a highway robbery (where a bandit "took from a Sardinian Gentleman a Purse of Guineas and a rich Scimitar", among other things) at Newbury and the theft of a horse ("Four Years Old, and about Fourteen hands high") at Ballyhome.
Over the centuries, theNews Letter's reports have spanned the rule of 77 different prime ministers and 10 monarchs.[9] It is one of the few newspapers still in business which reported on the US Declaration of Independence (carrying the news in an edition in late August 1776).[5]
Originally published three times weekly, it became daily in 1855. Before thepartition of Ireland, theNews Letter was distributed island-wide.
On 20 March 1972, the newspaper's offices, then in Donegall Street in the north of the city centre,were bombed by the IRA. The paper reported at the time that "two false alarms were phoned in about another bomb just around the corner in Church Street; people were evacuated – towards the real bomb".[10]
It detonated at 11.58 am, three minutes after an accurate warning had been given about the bomb's whereabouts. Seven people died, and over 140 were injured (with some staff among the wounded). Nevertheless, the paper came out the next day.[10][11][12]
One of the recurring motifs of theNews Letter's editorial line today is to remind people of the scale of the paramilitary bloodshed during the Troubles, with the vast bulk of crimes being unsolved.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]
In recent years, the paper's business model has focussed on increasing subscriptions (home delivery and collection for the print edition, mobile devices/laptops for the digital one). A paywall structure is in operation online, allowing people to read five articles per week without subscribing (though some content is purposely kept behind the paywall). In the second half of 2016 theNews Letter was the fastest-growing regional news site in the UK.[20]
Historical copies of theNews Letter, dating back to 1828, are available to search and view in digitised form at theBritish Newspaper Archive.[21] There are also historic copies of theNews Letter available for public access in the Belfast Newspaper Library, at the north end of the city centre, attached to the main Belfast Central Library.[22] Back copies of the physical newspaper can be bought, going back three months.
| Editor | Tenure | Notes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Francis Joy | 1737 – c.1760s | Founder and first editor | [23] |
| Henry Joy I | mid-18th century | Member of founding Joy family | [24] |
| Robert Joy | mid-18th century | Member of founding Joy family | [25] |
| Henry Joy II | late 18th century | Member of founding Joy family | [26] |
| Alexander MacKay | 1796 – early 19th century | Took over the business and editorship in 1796 | [27] |
| James Stuart | 1821 – 1820s | Historian; first independent editor | [28] |
| James McKnight | 1820s–1830s | Political writer and tenant-right advocate | [29] |
| Robert Mooney | mid-19th century | Graduate of Trinity College Dublin | [30] |
| Sir Frederick Falkiner | mid-19th century | Later senior court official in Dublin | [31] |
| W. H. Kisbey | mid-19th century | Later county court judge in Louth | [32] |
| Richard Lilburn | 1867 – 1898 | Retired in 1898 | [33] |
| W. G. Anderson | 1898 – 1928 | Succeeded Lilburn | [34] |
| William McKee | 1928 | Very short tenure before replacement | [35] |
| Robert Hamilton | 1928 – mid-20th century | Former London editor of the newspaper | [36] |
| Cowan Watson | 1965 – 1976 | Stood down for health reasons | [37] |
| Ken Withers | 1976 – 1978 | Left after internal dispute | [38] |
| John Trew | 1978 – 1983 | Stood down on health grounds | [39] |
| Sam Butler | 1983 – 1990 | Former UUP press officer; left to joinToday newspaper | [40] |
| Geoff Martin | 1990 – 2002 | Later returned to English weekly newspapers | [41][42] |
| Nigel Wareing | 2002 – 2004 | Former editor-in-chief of Greater Manchester Weekly Newspapers | [43] |
| Austin Hunter | 2004 – 2006 | Former PSNI communications director | [44][45] |
| Darwin Templeton | 2006 – 2011 | Later joined UTV | [46][47] |
| Rankin Armstrong | 2012 – 2015 | Retired in 2015 | [48] |
| Alistair (Alister) Bushe | 2015 – 2021 | Later joined Reach plc | [49][50] |
| Ben Lowry | 2021 – present | Former deputy editor | [51][52] |
The paper publishes the agricultural supplementFarming Life on Wednesdays and Saturdays, included within the newspaper itself. It publishes a weekend supplement on Saturdays, containing features and commentary and TV guide. It also publishes a supplement for the Twelfth of July celebrations.
In addition to theNews Letter's coverage of theRenewable Heat Incentive scandal from 2016 to the present, a book entitledBurned: The Inside Story of the 'Cash-for-Ash' Scandal and Northern Ireland's Secretive New Elite, by its (now former) political correspondent Sam McBride (a frequent media commentator on Northern Irish affairs), was published in 2019 by Merrion.[53][54]
| Year (period) | Average circulation per issue |
|---|---|
| 2005 (July to December)[55] | 28,616 |
| 2007 (January to June)[56] | 26,803 |
| 2008 (January to June)[56] | 26,199 |
| 2011 (January to June)[57] | 23,492 |
| 2013 (January to June)[58] | 19,550 |
| 2016 (January to June)[59] | 15,475 |
| 2017 (January to June)[59] | 14,900 |
| 2018 (January to June)[60] | 13,374 |
| 2018 (July to December)[61] | 12,499 |
| 2019 (January to June)[62] | 11,829 |
| 2019 (July to December)[63] | 11,076 |
| 2021 (January to June)[64] | 9,505 |
| 2021 (July to December)[65] | 8,958 |
... Sam McBride, political editor of the unionist-leaning Belfast Newsletter.