Newcastle Herald

Last updated

Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald Masthead.svg
TypeDaily newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) Australian Community Media
EditorLisa Allan
Founded1858
Headquarters Newcastle
Website www.newcastleherald.com.au OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Newcastle Herald (formerly branded as The Herald) is a local tabloid newspaper published daily, Monday to Saturday, in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is the only local newspaper that serves the greater Hunter Region and Central Coast region six days a week. It is owned by Australian Community Media.

Contents

Overview

The Newcastle Herald is the Hunter's largest local media organisation, and enjoys a long affinity and reader involvement with the region's residents. It is also well read in Sydney (with readership figures showing a 20% increase in Sydney readership on Saturdays) and interstate, and is usually seen as an accurate record of business and local data for those looking to relocate to the region.

The paper features the only classifieds section published six days a week across the region.

The Newcastle Herald employs more than 310 full-time staff, and injects $17 million into the local economy each year.

History

The Newcastle Herald had its origins in two early newspapers, The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River District News and The Miners Advocate and Northumberland Recorder .

Established in 1858, the Chronicle began as a weekly journal carrying mining, shipping, court and some small items of local news. It cost just sixpence. In the years that followed it took on more of the appearance of a newspaper, became a bi-weekly and then tri-weekly, and by 1876 its last edition was priced at two pence.

Some of the paper's first articles document the Newcastle Earthquake of 1868, riots, severe storms and the sinking of Cawarra, the worst shipwreck in Newcastle's history that claimed the lives of sixty passengers on the Brisbane-bound passenger ship. It was also during the paper's infant years that the Newcastle rail line was extended to Watt Street (1858), Newcastle became a municipality (1859), the Miners' Federation was formed (1860) and gas lighting was introduced to the city (1875).

In 1873 in Nelson St, Plattsburg (now part of Wallsend), The Miners Advocate and Northumberland Recorder was first published. Under the guidance of founder John Miller Sweet, the paper flourished and by 1876 it was a tri-weekly selling for three pence and with a circulation of 4,000 copies a week.

John Sweet's father-in-law, James Fletcher, believed the region was ready for a bigger newspaper published daily and persuaded his son-in-law to expand. The Advocate moved to Bolton Street, Newcastle, and on 3 April 1876, the first copies of The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate were published. The first Herald and Advocate masthead was ornate and carried a sketch of a colliery pit-top, including poppet head and chimney. Such ornate mastheads stayed with The Herald for 104 years, the last major change being on 6 October 1980, when a more modern and simpler masthead was introduced, dropping the "Morning" and "Miners Advocate" from the title.

As with the Chronicle the first years of The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate were to be also marred by tragedy. Some of the first stories printed by the newly named paper included the sinking of Yarra Yarra off Newcastle with no survivors, a fire in Scott Street, deaths at the Greta coal mine, coal strikes and the beginning of the Boer War. Among other stories of local importance were the sinking of the Newcastle-Stockton ferry Bluebell (The Bluebell Collision) in 1934, The Newcastle Tragedy of 1927 and the Japanese attack on the city's East End and dockyards in 1942.

Move to tabloid

In July 1998, the newspaper rebranded itself as "the compact with impact" after going tabloid in size. According to the newspaper's proponents the move to tabloid was an immediate success, and the newspaper's circulation has grown more than 21 per cent since then. Others have argued that the paper's journalism values suffered and that the paper had become more sensationalist and less analytical as a result. [1] As the Newcastle Herald was one of the first Australian newspapers to switch from broadsheet to tabloid, the paper is often cited as an example when other Australian newspapers are contemplating or alleged to be contemplating a similar move.

Merger

In mid-2008, the paper was forced to sell its free weekly Post publication to Newcastle Jets FC owner Con Constantine following the merger between Fairfax Media and Rural Press. Rural Press owned the competing Star newspaper and the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission ruled that the conglomerate was not allowed to own two such similar publications. The Star ceased publication in April 2020 due to a drop in advertising revenue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. [2]

Awards

Two Herald writers have won the Gold Walkley, the most prestigious of the Walkley Awards for Australian journalism. John Lewis won in 1981 for his articles on the attempted takeover of NBN Television, [3] while Joanne McCarthy won in 2013 for her work on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabloid (newspaper format)</span> Type of newspaper

A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format.

<i>The Age</i> Melbourne daily newspaper

The Age is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and southern New South Wales. It is delivered both in print and digital formats. The newspaper shares some articles with its sister newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald.

The News was an afternoon daily tabloid newspaper in the city of Adelaide, South Australia, that had its origins in 1869, and ceased circulation in 1992. Through much of the 20th century, The Advertiser was Adelaide's morning broadsheet, The News the afternoon tabloid, with The Sunday Mail covering weekend sport, and Messenger Newspapers community news.

<i>Northern Territory News</i> Australian morning tabloid newspaper

The Northern Territory News is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published every week from Monday to Saturday. It primarily serves Darwin and the rest of the Northern Territory and it covers local, national, and world news as well as sports and business. The paper currently has a Monday to Friday readership average of 44,000, reaching an average of 32,000 on Saturdays.

<i>Australian Financial Review</i> Australian financial newspaper

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; owned by Nine Entertainment and has been published continuously since its founding in 1951. The AFR, along with the rest of Fairfax Media, was sold to Nine Entertainment for more than A$2.3 billion. The AFR is published in tabloid format six times a week, whilst providing 24/7 online coverage through its website. In November 2019, the AFR reached 2.647 million Australians through both print and digital mediums (Mumbrella).

<i>The Border Mail</i>

The Border Mail is a daily newspaper and online news brand published in Albury-Wodonga, Australia, serving the twin cities and the surrounding region. It was originally published as The Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times and later as the Border Morning Mail before changing its title to The Border Mail.

<i>Gold Coast Bulletin</i> Newspaper in Queensland, Australia

The Gold Coast Bulletin is a daily newspaper serving Australia's Gold Coast region. It is published as The Gold Coast Bulletin on weekdays and the Weekend Bulletin at weekends. It is owned by News Corp Australia.

The Northumberland Gazette is a weekly newspaper published in Alnwick, Northumberland, England. It serves Alnwick, Amble, Seahouses, Rothbury, Wooler and outlying districts.

<i>Townsville Bulletin</i> Newspaper in Queensland, Australia

The Townsville Bulletin is a daily newspaper published in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, formerly known as the Townsville Daily Bulletin. It is the only daily paper that serves the northern Queensland region. The paper has a print edition, a subscription digital edition and a website.

<i>Star Observer</i>

The Star Observer is a free monthly magazine and online newspaper that caters to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities in Australia.

The Sunraysia Daily is a local newspaper in the north-western Sunraysia region of Victoria, Australia, it is published on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. From its first publication in 1920 until 14 September 2007, it was published in broadsheet format, changing to tabloid-size the following day.

The Falkirk Herald is a weekly newspaper and daily news website published by National World. It provides reportage, opinion and analysis of news, current affairs and sport in the towns of Falkirk, Camelon, Grangemouth, Larbert, Stenhousemuir and Denny as well as the neighbouring villages of Polmont, Redding, Brightons, Banknock and Bonnybridge. Its circulation area has a total population of 151,600, the fifth largest urban area in Scotland. It was named Weekly Newspaper of the Year at the 2013 Scottish Press Awards.

The Sunshine Coast Daily is an online newspaper specifically serving the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland, Australia. It is owned by News Corp Australia. It was originally founded as a print newspaper, however since 2020 the publication is only available in digital forms.

The Bendigo Weekly is a tabloid-size, full-colour newspaper published weekly throughout Bendigo, and country districts in central Victoria, including Woodend, Echuca, Wedderburn and Colbinabbin.

<i>The Sun</i> (Sydney) Afternoon tabloid newspaper

The Sun was an Australian afternoon tabloid newspaper, first published under that name in 1910.

The Miners Advocate and Northumberland Recorder was a bi-weekly English language newspaper published in Newcastle, New South Wales.

<i>The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River District News</i> Australian periodical

The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River District News was a weekly English language newspaper published in Newcastle, New South Wales.

The Plains Producer is a weekly newspaper published Wednesdays by Papers and Publications Pty. Ltd. in Balaklava, South Australia. It was founded in 1903 and was printed until 1941, when it was stopped by the Second World War. The publication was revived in 1946 and it has been published continuously since then.

Anthony De Ceglie is an Australian journalist who has served as the editor-in-chief of West Australian Newspapers since January 2019. Prior to entering the position, De Ceglie served as the deputy editor of the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph from March 2016, as well as serving as Deputy Editor at the Sunday Times and its web portal PerthNow before becoming the editor of WAN. His first job in journalism was at The Collie Mail in the rural town of Collie, Western Australia.

References

  1. "Australia gets another Tabloid". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 30 July 1998. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 28 October 2007. (transcript of radio broadcast)
  2. "UPDATED: Hunter newspapers shuttered due to coronavirus downturn". Newcastle Herald. Australian Community Media. 15 April 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  3. (10 October 1981) Journalism award to two staff members, The Canberra Times . Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  4. "Walkley Awards: Joanne McCarthy wins gold, Caroline Jones among ABC journalists honoured". ABC News. 29 November 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2020.