Belfast News Letter: The UK's Oldest Daily Newspaper and Its Role in Northern Ireland News

When you think of the Belfast News Letter, the longest-running daily newspaper in the United Kingdom, first published in 1758. Also known as News Letter, it's not just a paper—it’s a living archive of Northern Ireland’s political shifts, social changes, and daily life through wars, peace talks, and economic upheavals. Unlike modern digital outlets, it survived the rise of radio, TV, and social media by sticking to local truth-telling, even when that truth was uncomfortable.

The Belfast News Letter isn’t just old—it’s foundational. It predates the London Gazette, which started in 1665 and is the oldest continuously published government paper, and it’s older than the Berrow's Worcester Journal, the oldest weekly. While others changed formats or folded, the News Letter stayed in print, daily, through the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement, Brexit, and the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Its readership isn’t huge by national standards, but its influence is deep: local politicians, civil servants, and community leaders still read it first. It’s the paper that breaks stories before they hit national headlines—like when it reported early signs of the 2017 power-sharing breakdown or covered the fallout from the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal before anyone else.

What makes the Belfast News Letter stand out today isn’t just its age. It’s how it holds space in a media world that’s increasingly polarized. While some outlets chase clicks with outrage, the News Letter still runs community notices, obituaries, and local council summaries alongside its political analysis. It’s not perfect—its editorial stance has often leaned unionist—but it doesn’t pretend to be neutral. That honesty builds trust. And in a region where identity is tied to history, trust matters more than reach. If you want to understand what’s really happening in Northern Ireland—not the headlines, but the quiet, daily realities—you need to know what the News Letter is saying.

Below, you’ll find posts that dig into the history of British newspapers, how media ownership shapes what we read, and how local journalism survives—or doesn’t—in the digital age. You’ll see how the News Letter fits into the bigger picture of UK media, from the Scott Trust that owns The Guardian to the rise of TikTok news among younger readers. This isn’t just about one paper. It’s about how information survives when everything else is changing.