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Falkirk Herald

The Falkirk Herald
SFFH-12-09-13-001-SFFH-page-001.jpg
Front page of The Falkirk Herald published on 12 September 2013
Type Weekly newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) Johnston Press
Editor Colin Hume
Founded 1845
Headquarters Gateway Business Park, Beancross Road, Grangemouth (Scotland)
Circulation 21,937
ISSN 0963-2034
Website FalkirkHerald.co.uk

The Falkirk Herald is a weekly newspaper and daily news website published by Johnston Press. It provides reportage, opinion and analysis of current affairs in the towns of Falkirk, Grangemouth, Larbert and Denny as well as the neighbouring villages of Polmont, Redding, Brightons, Banknock and Bonnybridge. The paper's circulation area has a total population of 151,600, the fifth largest urban area in Scotland. The Falkirk Herald had an audited circulation of 21,937 in the six months from July-December 2012, making it the biggest selling local weekly newspaper in Scotland. It was named Weekly Newspaper of the Year at the 2013 Scottish Press Awards.

The Falkirk Herald and Stirlingshire Monthly Advertiser was established by Alexander Hedderwick, a Glasgow-based lawyer. The first edition went on sale on Saturday, 14 August 1845.

Less than a year later the fledgling title was sold to Archibald Johnston, whose grandfather had first established a printing business in 1763. Johnston moved production of the Herald to Falkirk, and the first edition to be printed in the town went on sale on 13 August 1846. The Herald was the first newspaper purchased by the Johnston family, and the title's increasing size and influence would play a crucial part in growing the company which would become the present day Johnston Press publishing empire.

The Falkirk Herald switched from monthly to weekly publication in 1851 and its first full-time editor, Mr J. Finlay, was appointed on the recommendation of Alexander Russell, editor of The Scotsman.

During its first decade of publication the newspaper campaigned vigorously for its Falkirk to be granted municipal burgh status. This would allow for the creation of a modern council to replace the medieval system of 'stentmasters' who had controlled local affairs for centuries and were widely viewed as incompetent. Burgh status would also mean the town could raise money needed to fund urban improvements, such as water supply and roadworks. A parliamentary bill enshrining these changes in law was eventually passed in 1859.


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