News Letter

The News Letter is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in September 1737. The newspaper's editorial stance and readership, while originally republican at the time of its inception, is now unionist. Its primary competitors are the Belfast Telegraph and The Irish News.
The News Letter has changed hands several times since the mid-1990s, and is now owned by National World. It was formerly known as the Belfast News Letter, but its coverage spans the whole of Northern Ireland, so the word Belfast does not appear on the masthead any more.

History

Founded in 1737, the News Letter was first printed in Joy'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 – 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 the News Letter founder.
The Joy family were of Huguenot 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 of Killead. In Belfast, he married the daughter of the town sovereign, 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 in Ballymena, and were able to produce enough paper not only for their own publication but for the whole of Ulster.
The earliest available edition of the News Letter that survives is from 3 October 1738.
Samples from that antiquated edition include reports about a highway robbery at Newbury and the theft of a horse at Ballyhome.
Over the centuries, the News Letter reports have spanned the rule of 77 different prime ministers and 10 monarchs. It is one of the few newspapers still in business which reported on the US Declaration of Independence.
Originally published three times weekly, it became daily in 1855. Before the partition of Ireland, the News Letter was distributed island-wide.

The Troubles

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".
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. Nevertheless, the paper came out the next day.
One of the recurring motifs of the News Letter 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.

Today

In recent years, the paper's business model has focussed on increasing subscriptions. A paywall structure is in operation online, allowing people to read five articles per week without subscribing. In the second half of 2016 the News Letter was the fastest-growing regional news site in the UK.
Historical copies of the News Letter, dating back to 1828, are available to search and view in digitised form at the British Newspaper Archive. There are also historic copies of the News 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. Back copies of the physical newspaper can be bought, going back three months.

Editors

Editor	Tenure	Notes	Sources
Francis Joy	1737 – c.1760s	Founder and first editor
Henry Joy I	mid-18th century	Member of founding Joy family
Robert Joy	mid-18th century	Member of founding Joy family
Henry Joy II	late 18th century	Member of founding Joy family
Alexander MacKay	1796 – early 19th century	Took over the business and editorship in 1796
James Stuart	1821 – 1820s	Historian; first independent editor
James McKnight	1820s–1830s	Political writer and tenant-right advocate
Robert Mooney	mid-19th century	Graduate of Trinity College Dublin
Sir Frederick Falkiner	mid-19th century	Later senior court official in Dublin
W. H. Kisbey	mid-19th century	Later county court judge in Louth
Richard Lilburn	1867 – 1898	Retired in 1898
W. G. Anderson	1898 – 1928	Succeeded Lilburn
William McKee	1928	Very short tenure before replacement
Robert Hamilton	1928 – mid-20th century	Former London editor of the newspaper
Cowan Watson	1965 – 1976	Stood down for health reasons
Ken Withers	1976 – 1978	Left after internal dispute
John Trew	1978 – 1983	Stood down on health grounds
Sam Butler	1983 – 1990	Former UUP press officer; left to join Today newspaper
Geoff Martin	1990 – 2002	Later returned to English weekly newspapers
Nigel Wareing	2002 – 2004	Former editor-in-chief of Greater Manchester Weekly Newspapers
Austin Hunter	2004 – 2006	Former PSNI communications director
Darwin Templeton	2006 – 2011	Later joined UTV
Rankin Armstrong	2012 – 2015	Retired in 2015
Alistair Bushe	2015 – 2021	Later joined Reach plc
Ben Lowry	2021 – present	Former deputy editor

Other publications

The paper publishes the agricultural supplement Farming 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 the News Letter coverage of the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal from 2016 to the present, a book entitled Burned: The Inside Story of the 'Cash-for-Ash' Scandal and Northern Ireland's Secretive New Elite, by its political correspondent Sam McBride, was published in 2019 by Merrion.