Ben Lowry: The News Letter is 283 years old and — let’s hope — might go 283 years further

This week I wrote about the Belfast News Letter’s birthday.
By Ben Lowry
Published 19th Sep 2020, 12:00 BST
Updated 20th Sep 2020, 16:14 BST
The oldest surviving edition of the Belfast News Letter, the world's oldest English language daily newspaper, at the Linenhall library in Belfast. The edition is from October 1738, 13 months after the paper was launched in September 1737The oldest surviving edition of the Belfast News Letter, the world's oldest English language daily newspaper, at the Linenhall library in Belfast. The edition is from October 1738, 13 months after the paper was launched in September 1737
The oldest surviving edition of the Belfast News Letter, the world's oldest English language daily newspaper, at the Linenhall library in Belfast. The edition is from October 1738, 13 months after the paper was launched in September 1737

On Thursday we turned 283, the oldest English language daily newspaper in the world.

Of all the many striking statistics that relate to our long history is the fact that we were launched about midway between Johannes Gutenberg’s creation of the printing press (1440) and the present day.

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Printing ultimately made newspapers possible but it was more than two centuries before the concept became viable due to the need for society to advance in other ways.

It got me thinking about the fact that the News Letter is, therefore, halfway to the year 2303.

We were launched 283 years ago in 1737, while 2303 is 283 years in the future.

If so, perhaps our journey as a paper will be seen to mirror the development of computers. By some estimates, the first computers were wooden calculating machines that began to emerge in the early 1700s, around the time this paper was launched.

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Thus today — the year 2020 — is roughly halfway between those machines and the early 24th century.

And note how computers have taken off in just the last few decades.

When I began working on a website on the News International newspaper titles in 1996, I did not even know what the internet was. Now the internet and other digital advances have saved papers.

Our readership had been declining in print, but is now rising sharply online.

Who knows what the next 283 years will bring.

I do hope that the News Letter title is still going then!

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

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Related topics:Ben LowryNorthern IrelandIrish SeaBoris Johnson