The Herald (Plymouth)

The Herald is South West Media Group's Plymouth-based newspaper. It serves Plymouth, and the surrounding communities of West Devon, South East Cornwall and parts of the South Hams.

The paid-for newspaper has a circulation of 40,385 and a readership figure of 119,627 (Jan-Jun 2006) and is owned by the Northcliffe Newspapers Group, part of the Daily Mail & General Trust. It's sister titles include the Express&Echo in Exeter, the Herald Express in Torquay, the Leicester Mercury, the Western Morning News and the Evening Standard in London

Its website at [http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk www.thisisplymouth.co.uk] has almost three million page views a month and includes video and audio content, as well as interactive features such as story comments and a forum, to complement the printed title.

The history of the Herald stretches back to 2pm on Monday, April 22, 1895 when the Western Evening Herald was launched as Plymouth's first evening newspaper.Various other newspapers had come and gone in the 100 years prior to that date in Plymouth.The WEH was published by the owners of the Western Daily Mercury. It was then bought by Sir Leicester Harmsworth in 1921, a year after he bought the Western Morning News company, and was renamed The Evening Herald and Western Evening News on September 17, 1923 then changed again on May 24, 1924 to the Western Evening Herald and Western Evening News.

The title changed again to the Evening Herald after becoming a tabloid in 1987, and then became simply The Herald in October 2006 when its print deadline shifted from midmorning (between 9am and 11am) to 1am.

The paper is printed from a state-of-the-art purpose built site, shared with the Western Morning News, at Derriford in the north of Plymouth. The building, in the shape of a ship and constructed predominantly from glass, was designed by architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, who also designed The Eden Project and Waterloo Station. The building was completed in 1993 and the two newspapers moved to the site in that year. It was built at a cost of £34million.

The Herald is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday, and now has one edition covering Plymouth, south east Cornwall and south and west Devon. It carries a jobs supplement every Wednesday, a homes supplement every Thursday and an entertainment supplement every Friday, with extra pages of business printed on a Tuesday to support the daily business content.

The editor is Bill Martin, the deputy editor is Clare Jardine, the web editor is Neil Shaw and the news editor is James Garnett.

The Herald extensively reports on Plymouth's sports teams including Plymouth Argyle F.C. (Football League Championship), Plymouth Albion R.F.C. (National Division One), Plymouth R.L.F.C (Rugby League Conference), Plymouth Admirals (British American Football League), Plymouth Raiders (British Basketball League) and the Plymouth Devils (Speedway Conference League).

The sports editor is Sara Raine and the Argyle Chief Reporter is Chris Errington.

Alan Clark, the Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton from 1974 to 1992, dismissed the people of Plymouth as 'believing everything they read in the Herald'.

External links

* [http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk Newspaper website]
* [http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/argyle Newspaper website's Plymouth Argyle section]
* [http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/titlesdaily/070.shtml Archive of stories related to The Herald at Hold The Front Page]
* [http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=716591342 The Herald's Brightcove video channel]
* [http://www.whatson-plymouth.co.uk/ The Herald's entertainment site What's On]
* [http://www.myspace.com/plymouthherald The Herald's page on MySpace]