Rankin Armstrong to step down as editor of the News Letter this autumn

Rankin Armstrong is stepping down as editor of the News Letter this autumn to take early retirement after 44 years working in NI journalism. In a statement, Rankin reflected that “it is the right time to move on to a new chapter in my life”. I am leaving a paper that’s in good health, with a loyal print readership and a growing digital presence. These are exciting times for the business and there is a bright future ahead in the …

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Theft of Binevenagh Sea god

The removal of the statue of a celtic sea god Manannán Mac Lir has been covered by a number of the news outlets. The large heavy statue was placed at a view point on Binevenagh Mountain about a year ago. According to John Sutton its sculptor it would have been difficult to remove and required angle grinders and and several hours. It has now been taken and replaced with a cross bearing the words: “You shall have no other gods …

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Round-up of press reaction to DUP conference #dup14

So what did the Monday papers think of the DUP’s weekend conference in La Mon? In an Irish Times opinion piece under the headline of “DUP leader’s subtle message of co-operation to end gridlock” Gerry Moriarty pulled out Peter Robinson’s statement – buried in his speech – about the need for the DUP and Sinn Fein to do business together. There is still a bitter rump in the party that hates hearing that line but Robinson realised that, in the …

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Local press reflect on SDLP conference, support for McDonnell, abortion & other NI leaders

The Belfast Telegraph published the results of their straw poll survey of 50 delegates at the SDLP party conference on Saturday. When walking through the exhibition space outside the main hall I declined the opportunity offered to answer the interviewer’s questions. 32% of surveyed delegates did not want Alasdair McDonnell to lead the SDLP into the 2016 Assembly election. And only 36% positively did want him to, leaving 32% undecided (or unwilling to express an opinion). From the mood of …

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John McCallister reveals links between LAD and NI21

It says something about a political party when the satirical website to which is has been linked is more important than the party. Or that the revelation of that link is more significant than an interview with its former deputy leader and a former leadership contender for a major NI political party. That it seems is the fate of NI21 and John McCallister respectively. Alex Kane has a long interview with John McCallister in the News Letter today with Sam …

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Upon retirement from the Assembly, Peter Robinson “might try my hand at something other than politics”

Peter Robinson was interviewed by Alex Kane recently for a piece that appeared in the News Letter. [I still don’t think the First Minister and DUP leader has “found time” yet to talk to the Irish News.] The audio of the interview was run on Lisburn’s 98FM On the Record politics programme today. You can listen to the interview in two parts and the full transcript is available on the News Letter website. listen to ‘(part 1/2) @AlexKane221b interviewing @DUPleader …

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News Letter relaunched with new fonts, new templates and perhaps fewer words

A new look News Letter hit the news-stands on Monday morning. All Johnston Press titles have been going through a process of refresh, and this week it is the turn of the two hundred and seventy six year old paper. The News Letter website will undergo its revamp today. [In the images below, last Wednesday’s News Letter is shown on the left; and Monday’s relaunched paper on the right.] The familiar masthead and the sign of the peacock remain on …

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Interview with Noel Doran as Irish News widens circulation gap with Belfast Telegraph

Every six months, the Audited Bureau of Circulations publishes figures for newspaper sales. The July-December 2012 were released at lunchtime. A newspaper might sum up the results in simple terms: it’s a good day for the Irish News, an okay day for the News Letter and bad day for the Belfast Telegraph. Other surveys will suggest figures for the number of readers (ie, heads not copies) each newspaper has on a daily or weekly basis, with an in-built margin of …

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[Amended] Happy Birthday News Letter (the oldest regular English language newspaper in the world)…

In about half an hour, there’s an unveiling of a plaque to one of the least remarked upon artefacts of Irish history: the founding of the News Letter 275 years ago Francis Joy. Ben lowry of the paper notes this morning: Early News Letters are among the most important historical documents in Britain or Ireland (50 years before The Times), although most of the first 13 years is missing. There is, though, a fascinating intact six month stretch in 1739 …

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Rankin Armstrong takes over the reins as editor of the News Letter

The News Letter has appointed Rankin Armstrong as its new editor. Darwin Templeton left the role (for UTV) nearly 12 months ago and since then Johnston Press has conducted an exhaustive [Ed – you mean exhausting?] search, including at least two rounds of interviews which included candidates from the newspaper group’s English operation. Most recently the paper’s deputy editor, Rankin has spent around 40 years in journalism, spending time in the Irish News and Belfast Telegraph as well as local weeklies …

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Irish News now sells more full price copies than Belfast Telegraph

local paper mastheads Belfast Telegraph Irish News News Letter

The latest set of audited circulation figures for Irish newspapers were published yesterday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. While the ABCs show some minor growth in portions of the local industry, they still highlight an overall year on year decline. The most startling finding is that the Irish News has overtaken the Belfast Telegraph in terms of the number of copies sold each day at the full ‘basic cover price’. However, the Belfast Telegraph’s circulation has not plummeted as …

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Who’s in charge: PRs or journalists?

News Letter logo

The News Letter’s Ben Lowry was written an interesting opinion piece highlighting the jarring interface between reporters, PRs and in particular the government press machine. It sits well alongside Mick’s earlier post about the Hearts and Minds’ discussion around Stormont ‘nationalising’ its own images. [Ed – Is that new media talking about mainstream media talking about really old media?] Quality journalism costs money, and without readers who dip into their pockets to pull out some coins, most newspapers would disappear. …

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Imitation is the greatest form of flattery? Is the Belfast Telegraph standing on the shoulders of the News Letter?

news letter belfast telegraph articles comparison

Two articles in local newspapers this week show a remarkable similarity. On Monday, the News Letter published a story (also in Coleraine Times) following up Ian Paisley Jnr’s statement in Westminster Hall last week about the future of A&E at the Causeway Hospital. A tip off pointed to Tuesday’s Belfast Telegraph website which also carries the story. While a significant portion of both articles rely on statements made by Ian Paisley Jnr MP in the House of Commons – available …

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Belfast Telegraph to drop evening edition, while News Letter may (not) go weekly?

Six weeks ago I posted about the continued decline in the circulation of local newspapers. Amongst the stable of Belfast dailies, the ABC figures for July-December 2011 showed that the Belfast Telegraph had lost 8.1% (4,270 copies) compared to the same period in 2010, and 9.4% (5,548 copies) when compared to the first six months of 2011. In fact, when free and discounted copies were taken out of the figures – eg, the copies that you find in hotels, airline …

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Dead tree circulation continues to decline – Belfast Telegraph dropping at nearly twice rate of News Letter & Irish News

Table showing circulation decline for Belfast Telegraph, Irish News, News Letter and Irish Times - up to date with second half 2011 figures

Looking at the latest set of newspaper circulation figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) – July to December 2011 – it is once again a story of decline. You’re unlikely to read anything about this in today’s papers! For the last few years, the Belfast Telegraph has performed better in the first half of each year. However, its overall trend is still down. With an average audited circulation of 53,771 copies in the second half of 2011, the …

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“the game for the UUP is virtually up unless it is able to come to terms with … the unpalatable reality”

Tom Eliott wielding scissors at the opening of David McNarry's Saintfield Advice Centre Opening

The king of the UUP-scourging quote is back. David McNarry, the man who gave us the line “the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken” has given up his early Lenten abstinence from the media. The UUP member and independent MLA at the centre of the party’s most recent fracas has emerged and spoken once again to the News Letter, despite the ongoing disciplinary process and the instruction to all …

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Up or Down, it’s time for the SDLP decide where its future lies…

Here’s the full text of my analysis for the News Letter’s election supplement on Tuesday. It started out as an attempt to examine the whole game, but more and more (not least because of ‘the simple fix‘) you sense the major dilemma facing nationalism primarily belongs to one party, rather than two: It’s been a strange campaign. With little over a year of functional executive activity, none of the political parties have a great deal to trade on, and there …

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Hold the Front Page: “Three serious daily newspapers in Belfast”

News Letter Belfast Telegraph Irish News

To finish off what O’Neill started on Sunday night with Tele takes a hiding and the discussion around the circulation graphs, former editor Steve Dyson dissected the morning editions of the three local papers over on Hold the Front Page. With his eyes set on the Wednesday 24 January morning editions of the News Letter, the Irish News and Belfast Telegraph:am, he comments on the “calm” headlines that accompanied one of that week’s main stories, the evacuation of 100 homes …

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McKenzie tells watchdog he resigned “to get their attention”

A number of people have been asking where the watchdog Consumer Council has been during the whole debacle over the period of upheaval at Board level in NI Water… Sam McBride has an interesting series of emails in which their chief executive expresses her own personal support for Laurence McKenzie… Some of it throws a rather different light on McKenzie’s motivation for resigning: …on the morning of January 22, 2010, two days after Mr MacKenzie withdrew his resignation as NI …

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Unionism: “Like most liberalism, when directed at others it’s patronising”

Christopher Montgomery thinks the hand wringing liberal unionist set need to accept that nationalists are not going to convert to unionism, and move on accordingly: There isn’t going to be a 32 county Irish republic in 2021, and there is still going to be an Ulster in the Union. And it’s still going to have lots of nationalists in it who don’t want to be there. It speaks well of unionism that its conceit has been to turn the other …

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