Falkirk Herald

About Falkirk Herald

The Falkirk Herald is a weekly newspaper and daily news website serving the Falkirk council area in central Scotland. Founded in 1845 and published by National World, it is one of Scotland's best-selling weekly newspapers, covering the towns of Falkirk, Grangemouth, Larbert, Stenhousemuir, Denny and Camelon and their surrounding villages. Named Weekly Newspaper of the Year at the 2013 Scottish Press Awards, it combines a tabloid print edition with the continuously updated falkirkherald.co.uk, and its history is inseparable from the Johnston Press publishing dynasty that grew from its pages.

Founding and the Victorian era

The Falkirk Herald was first printed in 1845 alongside the Stirlingshire Monthly Advertiser, founded by Alexander Hedderwick. A year later, in 1846, it was acquired by Archibald Johnston, whose family printing business had operated in Falkirk since 1797. The Johnstons would retain control of the paper for generations: after Archibald's death in 1877 control passed to his fourth son James, and then to Frederick, his youngest son, in 1882. Frederick Johnston remained publisher for 53 years, a period in which the Herald's circulation grew from around 7,000 to 15,000 a week as public literacy improved and demand for reading material expanded. In 1891 Johnston established the Linlithgow Gazette to serve neighbouring Linlithgowshire, and in 1909 the paper's staff moved into a purpose-built two-storey office on Falkirk High Street.

The Johnston Press empire

The Falkirk Herald was the seed from which Johnston Press, one of Britain's great regional publishing groups, grew. The family firm was renamed F Johnston & Co Ltd in 1882 and remained headquartered in Falkirk for 150 years, floating on the London Stock Exchange as Johnston Press in 1988. From the 1970s the company expanded aggressively, acquiring the Derbyshire Times publisher Wilfred Edmunds, the Halifax Evening Courier, EMAP's newspaper interests, Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers and, in 2006, The Scotsman Publications, taking in The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. When Johnston Press entered administration in November 2018 under the weight of 220 million pounds of debt, its assets were transferred to JPIMedia, which was itself acquired by National World in 2021, bringing the Falkirk Herald under its current owner.

Charity appeals and wartime history

The Herald has a distinguished record of community fundraising. In the First World War a fundraising drive for Belgian refugees earned a formal thank you from the King of Belgium. After the Redding pit disaster of 1923, the paper's appeal for the victims raised 63,000 pounds, a sum equivalent to several million pounds today. In 1940 readers donated 5,000 pounds to buy a Spitfire for the RAF; the aircraft was named "The Falkirk Bairn", took to the skies in 1941 and served with three squadrons before being written off in combat in September 1942. After the Second World War, the Falkirk Herald War Relief Fund raised 8,100 pounds for injured soldiers, their families and prisoners of war. These campaigns cemented the paper's reputation as a civic institution rather than merely a commercial enterprise.

Literary connections

The Herald's newsroom has hosted notable literary figures. The Scottish author Neil Munro, later famous as the creator of the comic character Para Handy, worked briefly as a journalist for the paper in 1890, early in a career that would make him one of Scotland's best-loved writers. The paper's long continuity, publishing weekly since 1845 with scarcely a break, has made its bound archives a rich resource for historians of central Scotland, documenting the area's transformation from an agricultural and canal town into an industrial centre of iron founding, brewing and petrochemicals at Grangemouth.

Coverage area and readership

The Herald's circulation area covers Falkirk, Camelon, Grangemouth, Larbert, Stenhousemuir and Denny, plus villages including Polmont, Redding, Brightons, Banknock and Bonnybridge, an urban area with a total population of around 151,600, the fifth largest in Scotland. Its content spans council affairs, planning and development, courts, health and education, alongside extensive sports coverage of Falkirk FC, Stenhousemuir FC and East Stirlingshire, junior football, rugby and golf. The paper recorded an ABC circulation of 5,501 in 2024, reflecting the nationwide decline in print sales, while its website reaches a far larger digital audience across the week.

Format change and the digital edition

In November 2011 the Herald switched from broadsheet to tabloid format after 166 years, a relaunch marked with a celebration at Callendar House in Falkirk, reflecting the industry-wide move toward compact formats. Its website, falkirkherald.co.uk, is updated daily with breaking news, sport and community stories, and operates within National World's digital network alongside titles including The Scotsman and the Edinburgh Evening News. The paper's journalists also produce video, podcasts and social content, and its death notices and family announcements sections remain among the most-read parts of the site, a continuing link to the community's daily life.

Awards and recognition

The Falkirk Herald was named Weekly Newspaper of the Year at the 2013 Scottish Press Awards, the industry's premier celebration of Scottish journalism, and has been shortlisted and honoured in numerous regional press awards over the decades. Trade press coverage regularly notes its status as one of Scotland's biggest-selling weeklies, and its newsroom has been held up as a model of sustained local reporting through successive changes of ownership. Individual Herald journalists have won recognition for investigations, campaigns and photography at Scottish press awards.

Role in Falkirk's civic life

For 180 years the Herald has chronicled Falkirk's defining moments: the rise and fall of the Carron ironworks, the coming of the canals and railways, the Grangemouth petrochemical complex, the closure of traditional industries and the town's reinvention around retail, logistics and tourism, symbolised by the nearby Kelpies sculptures. The Falkirk Wheel, the world's only rotating boat lift, reconnecting the Forth and Clyde and Union canals when it opened in 2002, gave the paper another landmark to celebrate, while Callendar House and the Antonine Wall, the Roman frontier that runs through the district, anchor its heritage coverage. Its pages have recorded royal visits, wartime sacrifice, industrial disputes and sporting glory, and its letters pages have long served as the town's debating chamber. As the area's newspaper of record, it remains the first port of call for announcements, tributes and public notices in the Falkirk district.

Reading the Falkirk Herald today

The Falkirk Herald is published weekly in print, on sale at newsagents and by subscription throughout the Falkirk council area, with an e-edition for digital readers. Breaking news, sport and community stories are published daily on falkirkherald.co.uk, where readers can also submit news tips, event listings, photographs and announcements. Under editor Jill Buchanan and owner National World, the title continues to serve central Scotland with the same local focus that has defined it since 1845, making it one of the longest continuously published newspapers in the country.

The Linlithgow Gazette and sister titles

In 1891 Frederick Johnston established the Linlithgow Gazette to serve neighbouring Linlithgowshire, the first of what would become a family of Johnston titles. The Gazette, which later incorporated the Bo'ness Journal and Queensferry Gazette, remains a sister paper of the Herald under National World ownership today. The relationship between the two titles, born in the same Falkirk printing offices, illustrates how the Johnston business grew: a single successful weekly generating the capital and expertise to launch others, until a provincial family firm became one of Britain's largest newspaper groups. The Herald and Gazette continue to serve adjacent patches on either side of the historic county boundary.