News Letter
 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | National World |
| Founder(s) | Francis Joy |
| Editor | Ben Lowry |
| Founded | 1737 |
| Political alignment | British unionism[1] |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Belfast city centre / Portadown |
| Circulation | 6,623 (as of 2023)[2] |
| Website | newsletter |
TheNews Letteris one ofNorthern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldestEnglish-languagegeneral daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in 1737.[3][4]The newspaper's editorial stance and readership, while originallyrepublicanat the time of its inception,[5]: 134–164 is nowunionist.[1]Its primary competitors are theBelfast TelegraphandThe Irish News.
TheNews Letterhas 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 Britainand theRepublic of Ireland), so the wordBelfastdoes not appear on the masthead any more.[6]
History[edit]
Founded in 1737, theNews Letterwas first printed inJoy's Entryin 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 the United Irishmen, and the grandson of theNews Letter'sfounder.
The Joy family were ofHuguenotdescent 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.[7][5]
The earliest available edition of theNews Letterthat survives is from 3 October 1738 (which is equivalent to 14 October in the modern calendar).[8]
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'sreports have spanned the rule of 77 different prime ministers and 10 monarchs.[8]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).[4]
Originally published three times weekly, it became daily in 1855. Before thepartition of Ireland,theNews Letterwas distributed island-wide.
The Troubles[edit]
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".[9]
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.[9][10][11]
One of the recurring motifs of theNews Letter'seditorial line today is to remind people of the scale of the paramilitary bloodshed during the Troubles, with the vast bulk of crimes being unsolved.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
Today[edit]
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 Letterwas the fastest-growing regional news site in the UK.[19]
Historical copies of theNews Letter,dating back to 1828, are available to search and view in digitised form at theBritish Newspaper Archive.[20]There are also historic copies of theNews Letteravailable for public access in the Belfast Newspaper Library, at the north end of the city centre, attached to the main Belfast Central Library.[21]Back copies of the physical newspaper can be bought, going back three months.
Other publications[edit]
The paper publishes the agricultural supplementFarming Lifeon 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'scoverage of theRenewable Heat Incentive scandalfrom 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.[22][23]
Print circulation[edit]
| Year (period) | Average circulation per issue |
|---|---|
| 2005 (July to December)[24] | 28,616
|
| 2007 (January to June)[25] | 26,803
|
| 2008 (January to June)[25] | 26,199
|
| 2011 (January to June)[26] | 23,492
|
| 2013 (January to June)[27] | 19,550
|
| 2016 (January to June)[28] | 15,475
|
| 2017 (January to June)[28] | 14,900
|
| 2018 (January to June)[29] | 13,374
|
| 2018 (July to December)[30] | 12,499
|
| 2019 (January to June)[31] | 11,829
|
| 2019 (July to December)[32] | 11,076
|
| 2021 (January to June)[33] | 9,505
|
| 2021 (July to December)[34] | 8,958
|
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^abGeoghegan, Peter (9 June 2017)."Who are the Democratic Unionists and what do they want?".Politico.Retrieved10 June2017.
... Sam McBride, political editor of the unionist-leaning Belfast Newsletter.
- ^"News Letter".Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK).26 February 2024.Retrieved3 March2024.
- ^"Research guide: Irish news & newspapers".Boston College.13 December 2004. Archived fromthe originalon 9 August 2007.Retrieved25 September2006.
- ^abJohnston, Ruth (16 October 2014)."Belfast News Letter".Your Place and Mine. BBC.
- ^abStewart, Anthony Terence Quincey (1998).A Deeper Silence: The Hidden Origins of the United Irishmen.Blackstaff Press.ISBN0-85640-642-2.
- ^"News Letter".British Newspapers Online.29 July 2013.
- ^McNeill, Mary (1988) [1960].The Life and Times of Mary Ann McCracken, 1770–1866: A Belfast Panorama.Blackstaff Press.ISBN0-85640-403-9.
- ^ab"The earliest copy of the Belfast News Letter, the world's oldest daily newspaper, turns 280 today".News Letter.14 October 2018.
- ^"Sutton Index of Deaths".Conflict Archive on the Internet.Ulster University.1994.
- ^"A Chronology of the Conflict – 1972".Conflict Archive on the Internet.Ulster University.
- ^"IRA must face the scrutiny that Sinn Fein demands of others".News Letter.5 January 2017.
- ^McGrattan, Cillian (22 August 2018)."Legacy Scandal: 'We're on verge of fostering a pro terrorist, anti state view of the Troubles', says academic".News Letter.
- ^Lowry, Ben (13 June 2020)."Ben Lowry: The far-reaching scale of the scandal on legacy still seems not to be properly understood".News Letter.
- ^Graham, Anne (23 September 2018)."Legacy Scandal: 'We are sleep walking into a Province governed by apologists for terror', says sister of Edgar Graham".News Letter.
- ^"Mum speaks out over LVF murder of her only son – 20 years after campaign declared over".News Letter.8 August 2018.
- ^Kula, Adam (20 May 2018)."Police family speaks out for first time 35 years after IRA murdered their brother and three other young officers".News Letter.
- ^Kula, Adam (6 June 2020)."'Thousands of Northern Irish people were murdered and their crimes are unsolved – their lives matter too'".News Letter.
- ^"The Drum Awards: Online Media".onlinemediaawards.net.2017.
- ^"Results: Belfast News-Letter".British Newspaper Archive.Findmypast Newspaper Archive.
- ^"Newspaper Library, Belfast Central Library".Libraries NI.
- ^Carroll, Rory (13 November 2019)."Burned by Sam McBride review – the inside story of the 'cash for ash' scandal".The Guardian.
- ^McKay, Susan (19 October 2019)."Burned: The story behind the North's 'cash-for-ash' scandal".The Irish Times.
- ^Lagan, Sarah (13 April 2006)."Senior editors leave Johnston amid Irish job cut fears".Press Gazette.
- ^ab"Circulation of 'Irish Times' increases".The Irish Times.22 August 2008.
- ^Linford, Paul (31 August 2011)."ABC figures: How the regional dailies performed".HoldTheFrontPage.Retrieved25 September2011.
- ^Greenslade, Roy (21 February 2014)."Ireland's newspapers lose print sales, but national titles hold up well".The Guardian.
- ^abMcKeown, Gareth (18 August 2017)."Irish News reports increase in circulation in first half of 2017".The Irish News.
- ^"News Letter: January to June 2018"(PDF).Audit Bureau of Circulations.23 August 2018.
- ^"News Letter: July to December 2018"(PDF).Audit Bureau of Circulations.21 February 2019.
- ^"News Letter: January to June 2019"(PDF).Audit Bureau of Circulations.15 August 2019.
- ^"News Letter: July to December 2019"(PDF).Audit Bureau of Circulations.6 February 2020.
- ^"News Letter: January to June 2021"(PDF).Audit Bureau of Circulations.11 August 2021.
- ^"Local newspaper sales UK: Latest circulation figures from ABC".23 February 2022.