Morpeth Herald
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | Johnston Publishing North East |
| Founded | 1854 |
| Website | www.morpethherald.co.uk |
The Morpeth Herald is a weekly newspaper published in Morpeth, Northumberland, England.
A broadsheet, established in 1854 as a monthly and becoming weekly in 1858, the newspaper serves Morpeth, Ponteland, Pegswood, Ellington, Lynemouth, Widdrington Station and the outlying districts. It was printed and published in Morpeth by successive generations of the Mackay family until 1983, when the title was acquired by the Tweeddale Press Group, based in Berwick upon Tweed, where printing then moved, though it was still edited from an office above the Mackays' shop in Morpeth for several years, before moving to separate offices nearby. From 1984 some of its editorial was shared with the Ponteland Observer, acquired by the Tweeddale Press Group that year; it incorporated the Ponteland Observer fully in 1986. It was sold to Northeast Press, now a division of Johnston Press in 1992. Editorial remains in Morpeth though the newspaper has during Northeast Press ownership been printed in Hartlepool or Sunderland and since the closure of Northeast Press's remaining Sunderland print centre in September 2012 until 2014, under contract by Trinity Mirror plc on their presses in Newcastle upon Tyne. Advertising is shared with its sister title the Northumberland Gazette. The title converted to tabloid in 2013, and was redesigned to more closely resemble the Gazette in 2014. The publisher has been listed as Johnston Publishing North East since 2015.
Morpeth is the administrative centre of Northumberland, home to the headquarters of Northumberland County Council.
The Herald typically covers local news, sport and leisure pieces, also prints opinion pieces, reader letters, classified advertisements, and contains a property and real estate pull-out section.
The newspaper's current editorial team is Chief Reporter Anna Smith and Senior Reporter Andrew Coulson. The editor is Paul Larkin, who is also the editor of its sister titles the Northumberland Gazette, Berwick Advertiser, News Post Leader and News Guardian.