The Ulster Herald
The Ulster Herald
Our ethos is very much community-focused: We place an extremely strong emphasis on sourcing exclusive news, sport and feature content to reflect the high and lows of local life, and the local issues that are important to the community. We also play a very proactive role in the community by hosting annual sports and business awards; in the past 18 months we have promoted positive initiatives such as ‘Get Active’ (a live online stream with a local gym to give families free exercise classes during the last lockdown) and ‘Live Local, Shop Local’ (free feature promoting businesses to help boost the local economy). The Ulster Herald is the leading publication in the area, enjoying a weekly print circulation on 7,500. We work extremely hard at providing impartial and in-depth content that cannot be found elsewhere. This approach also applies to our digital strategy and in the past 12 months we have launched a new website – WeAreTyrone - which incorprates a paywall, with new digital-only content including podcasts and video features. Our first full newspaper submission is from May 27, 2022. This edition had a strong front page and inside feature reflecting an issue that is extremely topical and important within the community: Access to local healthcare. This edition also contains a solid variety of local content from hard news to celebrations of personal and community achievement. Our second full newspaper submission is from October 27, 2022. We had a strong, engaging front page lead and inside feature on a popular local teacher and musician who candidly spoke about his battle with an extremely rare health condition. Other engaging features include the benefits of a local Men’s Shed and the heartwarming story of a young boy’s first visit to Ireland with his local family several years after major heart surgery. One of our journalism submissions is a news feature on the launch of a local group to support bereaved families who have lost children in tragic circumstances. This was a particularly poignant feature as it included the first interview with a mother whose young son died in a horrific car crash which claimed the lives of two other young men just two days after last Christmas. And reflecting our digital approach, we also covered this story in podcast format. A second submission is another heartwarming story of a primary school class which learnt sign language, in support of a partially deaf classmate. This culminated in a special performance at a school assembly, attended by members of the emergency services, and a message of support from Strictly Come Dancing winner, Giovanni Pernice. Our final supporting submission is a special report on young schoolchildren smoking a dangerous synthetic drug. The UlsterHerald excels at consistently delivering unique and relevant local content, packed with engaging features and exclusive news coverage.