A message from the editor: Subscribe to save on world’s oldest daily newspaper!

We are now in the year 2022, when the (Belfast) News Letter will turn 285.
By Ben Lowry
Published 8th Jan 2022, 08:34 BST
Updated 8th Jan 2022, 11:58 BST
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

As regular readers know, we are the oldest English language daily newspaper in the world.

It’s a record of which we are proud and which we plan never to lose, always, in our grand old age, staying half a century ahead of newcomers like The Times (of London) — founded in 1785 compared to our 1737!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Look at the montage of front pages on this web page, spanning almost three centuries, to get a glimpse of the range of stories we have reported over that vast time-span.

Front pages of the Belfast News Letter over the last 285 years: From October 1738 the earliest surviving edition of the paper; from December 1854 at the height of the Crimean War; from September 1912 at the time of the Ulster covenant; from September 1939 at the start of World War Two; from November 1963 at the assasination of John F Kennedy; from April 1998 at the time of the Belfast Agreement; and from Jauary 2022 the year the paper will turn 285Front pages of the Belfast News Letter over the last 285 years: From October 1738 the earliest surviving edition of the paper; from December 1854 at the height of the Crimean War; from September 1912 at the time of the Ulster covenant; from September 1939 at the start of World War Two; from November 1963 at the assasination of John F Kennedy; from April 1998 at the time of the Belfast Agreement; and from Jauary 2022 the year the paper will turn 285
Front pages of the Belfast News Letter over the last 285 years: From October 1738 the earliest surviving edition of the paper; from December 1854 at the height of the Crimean War; from September 1912 at the time of the Ulster covenant; from September 1939 at the start of World War Two; from November 1963 at the assasination of John F Kennedy; from April 1998 at the time of the Belfast Agreement; and from Jauary 2022 the year the paper will turn 285

You will have noticed that this morning our cover price rose to £2.

No-one welcomes such an increase, so let me explain it.

Producing a newspaper of this size entails immense costs — a bumper Saturday edition of 72 pages, with 72 pages of Farming Life. A total of 144 pages, like a mini book, which tens of thousands of people enjoy across Northern Ireland each weekend.

Scores of people, from reporters to accounting staff to printers, are employed to get these newspapers sourced, published and into the shops.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad
Ben Lowry, the editor: "Today alone in the print edition we have 23 pages of news from our excellent reporters, a weekend section, 21 pages of sport, 72 pages of Farmiing Life. Online we update the site daily and subscribers get unlimited access to all columns from the biking star Jonathan Rea to regular favourites Owen Polley, Sandra Chapman, Henry McDonald, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Jonny McCambridge Tim McGarry"Ben Lowry, the editor: "Today alone in the print edition we have 23 pages of news from our excellent reporters, a weekend section, 21 pages of sport, 72 pages of Farmiing Life. Online we update the site daily and subscribers get unlimited access to all columns from the biking star Jonathan Rea to regular favourites Owen Polley, Sandra Chapman, Henry McDonald, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Jonny McCambridge Tim McGarry"
Ben Lowry, the editor: "Today alone in the print edition we have 23 pages of news from our excellent reporters, a weekend section, 21 pages of sport, 72 pages of Farmiing Life. Online we update the site daily and subscribers get unlimited access to all columns from the biking star Jonathan Rea to regular favourites Owen Polley, Sandra Chapman, Henry McDonald, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Jonny McCambridge Tim McGarry"

That was always an expensive operation, but all the more so in a time of inflation and in particular sharply rising printing costs.

You can offset the increase in price by taking a subscription to the News Letter. There are various digital and print and combined offerings.

It is certainly worth it!

Today alone we have 23 pages of news from our excellent reporters. Then churches by Billy Kennedy and columns from Owen Polley on politics, by the barrister Austen Morgan analysing a recent hooded men court ruling, by our regular favourite Sandra Chapman and by the biking star Jonathan Rea.

Next week we have columns as usual by Henry McDonald (our new political editor, see link below), Ruth Dudley Edwards, Jonny McCambridge and Tim McGarry.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Our weekend interview this week is with Victor Chestnutt, president of the Ulster Farmer’s Union, in which he talks about matters ranging from reading his Bible to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

We also have another extract from the book ‘The Idea of the Union,’ this time from the historian Brian Barton.

Our 21 pages of sport today includes not just Rea, but lots of coverage of fixtures such as Irish League football.

Thank you for staying with us, our faithful readers, and supporting our quality journalism in an age in which news can come from many sources, some unknown and unreliable.

• To subscribe to the print edition and save 20% go to

localsubsplus.co.uk/pg/NSL

see page 18 inside for more information.

For a digital edition subscription go to

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions

Ben Lowry, Editor

•News Letter today announces new deputy and political editors

Related topics:Victor ChestnuttJonathan ReaBen LowryNorthern IrelandLondon