East Belfast Heralds Closes

A second ill-fated east Belfast weekly newspaper has gone out of business.

The East Belfast Herald folded less than a year after its launch when liquidators from Belfast business advisers FGS McClure Watters were appointed to oversee the voluntary winding up of the paid-for tabloid title.

Its first edition only hit the streets in January following a high-profile launch at Belfast Metropolitan College’s Castlereagh building, at which special guests included Minister for Employment Sir Reg Empey and author/screenwriter Colin Bateman.

The college had supported the ill-fated initiative through the provision of journalism students from its NVQ level 4 newspaper journalism course, but The Herald, owned and edited by former County Down Spectator Deputy Editor Fiona Rutherford, has now ceased publication.

Normally running to 64 pages and costing 75p, the paper claimed to serve more than 100,000 people across Belfast, Castlereagh, Dundonald and parts of the Ards Peninsula, where it covered issues such as business, sport, fashion, motoring and jobs.

At the launch, Sir Reg described the business venture as "an example of a positive linkage between what is done in the classroom and its practical implementation into industry", adding that it was "a wonderful opportunity for new and emerging journalists to join a newspaper from its inception".

"The Herald was an excellent product, but simply couldn’t survive given the severe downturn in the advertising market," East Belfast DUP Assembly Member and Executive Junior Minister Robin Newton said.

"This is an extremely unfortunate situation for the paper's owners and the dedicated staff who had worked so hard to try to gain a foothold in the market."

Another weekly paid-for paper in the area, The East Belfast Observer, also closed several years ago.

The Belfast Telegraph-owned Community Telegraph publishes a free newspaper for the area, alongside other locally-based titles.

It continues to publish and is now the only publication that provides a community-style weekly news product for the east Belfast population.

(BMcC/KMcA)