Editorial: We have been printing news from Ulster and around the world for 287 years

​This newspaper reaches another milestone on our journey to the grand old age of 300 today, as we reach our 287th birthday.​

As regular readers, indeed many people across Northern Ireland, know we are the oldest English language daily newspaper in the world.

The news has changed mightily in that time yet in a way it hasn’t changed at all.

The early News Letters of the late 1730s reported on a king (George II) who had strained relations with one of his sons (in his case the then Prince of Wales). Modern editions of the paper cover the sometimes fraught relationship between our present monarch, Charles III, and his younger son, Harry.

The first editions of this newspaper reported on the weather, again and again, in the form of reports on storms and lost ships and indeed lost lives (of boats and people that “found’rd”). There were no weather forecasts in that time, and travelling long distances by boat was dangerous. Now we have supremely reliable weather forecasts, that mean that this week’s spell of fine summery conditions was predicted, and turned out just as nice as hi tech weather computers said.

Ships are now so well built that they can travel safely through the fiercest storms. In the early Belfast News Letters you are beginning to get reports of the changes to the port areas that would over the following 150 years lead to reclaimed land and, ultimately, the world famous Harland and Wolff shipyard. Today we report on the struggle to keep it open.

Above all, the News Letter like other newspapers has played its part in that crucial element of western life: freedom of information. The first surviving paper reports on war in Russia. There is war in Russia today too. But that latter country does not allow a free press, nor does China or other dictatorships. We are lucky to live in societies that have free newspapers. On page 3 of the print edition we have a link to how to support our journalism, and for online click this link here where you can subscribe to the News Letter.