New ways in the digital age of keeping august publications alive and and modern and vibrant

It covers a period when the operations of the gazette moved from Dublin to Belfast.

The paper, which had been launched in 1856, became bigger and more modern in the 1960s.

Brian M Walker, Professor Emeritus of Irish Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, has produced an online presentation of this time in the Gazette’s history.

Such an exercise is a reminder that this is a thrilling time for newspapers and journals.

The Gazette is old, but the News Letter is more than a century older (1737, making us the world’s oldest English language daily). As the Gazette was expanding in the mid 20th century, so were we, with increasing pages on sport and, from 1953, the much loved Farming Life supplement.

Now papers and magazines typically have complementary digital editions — both websites, with an array of stories, and tablets that replicate the print version on screen.

It will be impossible for the News Letter ever to have a full digital archive of its earliest papers because most pre 1750 editions are lost. But modern technology means that the traditional way of reading a paper is still available, and new digital versions are too — and many of you, our faithful readers, are subscribing to the digital version or using vouchers.

See page 19 of the weekend print edition on how to use coupons to save money on buying print editions of the News Letter next week, or below on how to get a digital subscription.

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