Ulster Star

About Ulster Star

The Ulster Star is a long-standing weekly newspaper serving the city of Lisburn and the surrounding areas of County Antrim and County Down in Northern Ireland. Established in October 1957, it has been the borough's favourite read for approaching seventy years, providing comprehensive local news, sports coverage and community updates. Launched by a young man called Jim Morton in the face of stiff competition from two other long-established titles in the town, the Star outlasted its rivals to become the undisputed local paper of Lisburn. It is currently published by National World as part of its Northern Ireland division, and its online home is https://www.lisburntoday.co.uk.

October 1957: launched by Jim Morton

The Ulster Star was launched in October 1957 by a young man called Jim Morton, who founded the paper as a bold entrepreneurial venture in the Lisburn newspaper market. The paper began life with a tabloid layout, and its style and substance have changed dramatically since those early days. Morton's launch was described at the time as brazen: he was a young publisher taking on an established market with a new product, betting that Lisburn readers wanted a paper that truly served the local community. The company he founded, Morton Newspapers, grew from that single Lisburn title into a significant Northern Ireland publishing group. The Star's 65th anniversary was celebrated with a retrospective tracing the paper's journey from its 1957 launch to its position at the beginning of the twenty-first century as the local newspaper truly serving the local community.

Outlasting the competition

When the Ulster Star was launched in 1957, circumstances were drastically different from today: the paper faced stiff competition from two other long-established titles in the town. Lisburn, though smaller than it is now, already supported multiple newspapers, and a new entrant had to fight for every reader and every advertiser. It is a fitting testament to the success of the paper that now only the Star remains. The disappearance of its rivals left the Ulster Star as the sole dedicated weekly newspaper of Lisburn, a position it has held for decades. This survival was no accident: the paper built its reputation on thorough local coverage, on being present at the events that mattered to Lisburn people, and on reflecting the town's identity back to itself week after week.

Morton Newspapers

The company behind the Ulster Star, Morton Newspapers, grew alongside its flagship title into one of Northern Ireland's significant provincial publishing groups. The group expanded to publish 23 titles, with the papers collectively selling or distributing over 200,000 copies weekly to more than 500,000 readers. Morton Newspapers kept pace with the massive changes in newspaper technology over the decades — and, by its own account, led the way — moving from hot metal to computerised production produced entirely on screen and printed on a full-colour press at the company headquarters in Portadown. The group's weeklies included titles across Northern Ireland, and its paid and free newspaper groups were tracked separately in ABC circulation reports, with the Morton Newspaper Paid Group and Morton Newspaper Free Group among the listed reporting entities for the province.

Lisburn: from town to city

The Ulster Star's history is inseparable from the growth of Lisburn itself. When the paper was launched in 1957, Lisburn was a market town; in 1964 it was awarded borough status, and it has developed enormously ever since. Major developments transformed the borough in recent decades: the Lagan Valley LeisurePlex, the council's Civic Centre with its arts facilities at Lagan Valley Island, and the Lisburn Square development on the old swimming pool site were all chronicled in the Star's pages as evidence of exciting times for the borough. In 2002 Lisburn was granted city status as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations, becoming one of Northern Ireland's cities alongside Belfast, Derry, Newry and Armagh. The Star, which had campaigned for and celebrated the town's progress for 45 years by that point, recorded each stage of Lisburn's rise from market town to borough to city.

News coverage and community role

Throughout its history, the Ulster Star's position as a local newspaper truly serving the local community has remained undisputed. The paper covers the full range of provincial weekly journalism: council affairs, court reports, community events, school news, church news, local business and comprehensive sports coverage. Its "Past Times" features, drawing on extracts from the Ulster Star's own archives from the 1960s onwards, have been displayed at local historical exhibitions — including a St Mark's Church flower festival and historical exhibition in 2011 featuring extracts relating to the north Lisburn area — showing how the paper's back catalogue has become part of the town's collective memory. The Star's office at 12A Bow Street, Lisburn, has long been a familiar address for readers submitting news, photographs and memories.

Printing and technology

The Ulster Star's production history mirrors the technological transformation of the newspaper industry. From its original tabloid layout in 1957, produced by the methods of the hot-metal era, the paper moved through successive waves of new technology: the abandonment of hot metal typesetting in favour of computerised printing, the production of pages entirely on screen, and full-colour printing on a modern press at the company's Portadown headquarters. Morton Newspapers prided itself on not only keeping up with these massive changes but leading the way, and the benefits were visible in the bright new look of the paper. This investment in production technology was part of what allowed a provincial weekly to maintain its quality and visual appeal through decades of change in the industry.

Circulation

The Ulster Star's circulation has been recorded in ABC figures reported by the trade press over many years. In the first half of 2011, the paper's circulation was reported at 7,774, down 6.8 per cent year on year; figures published in early 2013 showed 6,800, down 11.7 per cent, while another reporting period gave 8,183, down 5.7 per cent. These figures reflect the paper's position as one of the stronger-selling weeklies in Northern Ireland — a paid-for title holding its own in a market where many provincial papers were in steep decline. The Morton Newspaper Paid Group, of which the Star was the flagship, was separately tracked in the ABC reports for the province.

Johnston Press and the 2017 restructure

The Ulster Star passed through the major ownership changes that reshaped Northern Ireland's provincial press. Morton Newspapers' titles became part of the Johnston Press stable through Johnston Publishing (NI), and the Star was among the titles affected by Johnston Press's 2017 restructure of its Northern Ireland weeklies, which saw around 14 titles moved to strict templates under the same basic 48-page format, with up to eight full-time equivalent jobs at risk. Johnston Press itself was placed in administration in November 2018 after 251 years in business, and its assets were acquired by JPI Media. In January 2021, JPI Media was bought by National World, David Montgomery's investment vehicle, for £10.2 million, and the JPI name was rebranded to National World in April 2022. The Ulster Star is now published by National World as part of its Northern Ireland division.

The Star's journalists and photographers

Over the decades, generations of journalists and photographers have made the Ulster Star what it is. The paper's 65th anniversary retrospective pictured Star photographers Simon Graham and Niall Marshall alongside reception staff Sandra Benson, Yvonne Stewart and Beth Megarry — the production, technical and front-of-house teams whose expertise produced the paper's bright modern look. Like all provincial weeklies, the Star has been both a training ground for young journalists and a long-term home for reporters who spent their careers covering the town they lived in. The paper's newsdesk has traditionally welcomed contributions from readers, with news and photographs submitted to the Bow Street office forming a staple of its community coverage.

The Ulster Star today

Today the Ulster Star continues to publish weekly as the long-standing newspaper of Lisburn, now under the ownership of National World. Its website at https://www.lisburntoday.co.uk carries the paper's journalism online, extending the Star's reach beyond its print heartland in the city and the surrounding areas of counties Antrim and Down. Approaching its 70th anniversary, the paper that Jim Morton brazenly launched in October 1957 — outlasting two established rivals to become the borough's favourite read — remains the journalistic voice of a city that has grown from market town to borough to city status in its lifetime. Lisburn is, as the Star once put it, on the up and up — and so, the paper insists, is the Star.