| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | Johnston Press |
| Editor | Colin Hume |
| Founded | 1845 |
| Political alignment | populist |
| Headquarters | Gateway Business Park, Beancross Road, Grangemouth (Scotland) |
| Circulation | 22,642 |
| ISSN | 0963-2034 |
| Official website | FalkirkHerald.co.uk |
The Falkirk Herald is a weekly tabloid newspaper published by Johnston Press. It provides news coverage, opinion and analysis of current affairs in the towns of Falkirk, Grangemouth, Larbert and Denny as well as neighbouring villages including Polmont, Redding and Bonnybridge.Combined, the paper's circulation area has a total population of 151,600. As of July 2011, The Falkirk Herald had an audited circulation of 22,642, making it the biggest selling local weekly newspaper in Scotland.[1]
Contents |
'The Falkirk Herald and Stirlingshire Monthly Advertiser' was first published by Alexander Hedderwick, a lawyer from Glasgow. The first edition went on sale on Saturday, August 14, 1845.[2]
A year later the paper was purchased by Archibald Johnston, whose family had been involved in the printing business since 1763. Johnston moved production of the Herald to Falkirk.
It switched from monthly publication to weekly in 1851.
Following the death of Archibald Johnston in 1877, control of the paper passed to his fourth son James, and eventually to Frederick, his youngest son, in 1882. Frederick Johnston was to remain as publisher of The Falkirk Herald for 53 years. Under his leadership, circulation of the Herald grew from 7000 to 15,000 copies. In 1891, he established the Linlithgow Gazette to serve the neighbouring county of Linlithgowshire.
The newspaper's staff moved into a purpose-built two-storey office in Falkirk High Street in 1909.
The Falkirk Herald launched several notable appeals in the first decades of the 20th century. A fundraising drive on behalf of Belgian refugees from the First World War earned a formal thank you from the King of Belgium. In the aftermath of the Redding pit disaster in 1923, The Falkirk Herald appealed for its readers to give generously on behalf of the victims. The appeal raised a staggering £63,000 – equivalent to several million pounds today.
In 1940 an appeal was launched to raise money to buy a Spitfire for the RAF. The paper's readership subsequently donated £5000, which was used to build a plane which was named ‘The Falkirk Bairn’. It took to the skies in 1941, serving with three squadrons before being written off in combat in September 1942.
Following the end of the war in 1945, The Falkirk Herald War Relief fund was launched to help injured soldiers, their families and prisoners of war. It raised £8100.
Frederick Mair Johnston became managing director of the Herald's parent company in 1936. Under his leadership, the family firm of F. Johnston & Company grew from publishing two newspapers to a total of 24.
His son, Frederick Patrick Mair Johnston, took over the chairman's role, remaining at the helm until his retirement in 2001. Under his charge, the company made its first English acquisition, the Derbyshire Times. Further acquisitions followed in Yorkshire, Sussex and the Midlands.
Circulation of The Falkirk Herald peaked at 40,000 in 1979, around the time production of the paper was threatened by a printer's strike.
The Falkirk Herald left its office in the High Street in 1982, moving a short distance to Newmarket Street. The former Herald building is now a branch of W.H. Smith.
In 1988, the Herald's parent firm F. Johnston & Co. Ltd was renamed Johnston Press and was floated on the Stock Exchange. Johnston Press is now the third largest publisher of regional newspapers in the United Kingdom.
The paper celebrated its 150th anniversary on August 14, 1995. Letters of congratulation were received from Her Majesty The Queen and Prime Minister John Major, amongst others. [3]
Production and printing of the newspaper moved to Camelon, a suburb of Falkirk, in 2001. In November 2010, all editorial and advertising staff moved to a new office in Grangemouth. A small office in Manor Street was opened to maintain a presence in Falkirk town centre.
The Falkirk Herald was named Weekly Newspaper of the Year in 2008 and 2009 at the Scottish Press Awards.
It was announced in the edition published on October 26, 2011 that the newspaper would switch to tabloid format the following week. The decision to end the paper's 166 years as a broadsheet was taken following the results of a consultation in which readers were asked to comment on the newspaper and its coverage. [4]