The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

, by

Independent News & Media Mediahuis Ireland (formally Independent News and Media (INM) )) is a media organisation that is based in Dublin and publishes national daily newspapers, Sunday newspapers, regional newspapers and operates multiple websites including Independent. ...

. Its editor is Eoin Brannigan. Reflecting its unionist tradition, the paper has historically been "favoured by the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

population", while also being read within

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

communities in Northern Ireland.

History

It was first published as the ''Belfast Evening Telegraph'' on 1 September 1870 by brothers William and George Baird. Its first edition cost half a penny and ran to four pages covering the Franco-Prussian War and local news. The evening edition of the newspaper was originally called the "Sixth Late", and "Sixth Late Tele" was a familiar cry made by vendors in Belfast city centre in the past. Local editions were published for distribution to

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,823 a ...

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

, Newry and

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

. Its competitors are ''

The News Letter The ''News Letter'' is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in 1737. The newspape ...

'' and ''

The Irish News ''The Irish News'' is a compact daily newspaper based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's largest selling morning newspaper and is available throughout Ireland. It is broadly Irish nationalist in its viewpoint, though it al ...

'', and local editions of London-based

red tops Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalist journalism (usually dramatized and sometimes unverifiable or even blatantly false), which takes its name from the tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as ...

also compete in this market, in some cases selling at a cheaper price than the "Tele". Sometimes described as having "unionist leanings", and operating an editorial policy supportive of "moderate unionism", the ''Belfast Telegraph'' was bought by the Dublin-based

group in March 2000. The ''Belfast Telegraph'' was entirely broadsheet until 19 February 2005, when the Saturday morning edition was introduced and all Saturday editions were converted to compact. The weekday morning compact edition was launched on 22 March 2005. In 2015, the ''Telegraph'' launched the magazine supplement ''Family Life''. The paper now publishes two editions daily, ''Belfast Telegraph'' final edition and the ''North West Telegraph'' which is distributed in

. Its editor, since April 2020, is Eoin Brannigan.

Awards

The ''Belfast Telegraph'' was named as Best UK Regional Newspaper of the Year 2012 by the Society of Editors Regional Press Awards.

Circulation

Reflecting a decline in newspaper sales generally, circulation of the ''Belfast Telegraph'' has declined as of the early 21st century, from 109,571 for the period July to December 2002, to 31,340 for the same period in 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belfast Telegraph 1870 establishments in Ireland Daily newspapers published in the United Kingdom Independent News & Media Mass media in Belfast Newspapers published in Northern Ireland Publications established in 1870