News Post Leader

It’s the result of the amalgamation during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s of several titles formerly published in its circulation area, of which the oldest was 1874 foundation the Blyth Illustrated Weekly News – which became the Blyth Weekly News after six months. 20 years later it became a twice-weekly newspaper and was renamed the Blyth Bi-Weekly News. In 1900 it reverted to weekly publication as the Blyth News.

In 1933 the Ashington & District Advertiser was founded. Renamed the Ashington Advertiser in 1958, it cut its title still further in 1961 to become simply The Advertiser. It was then renamed the Advertiser & Post in 1969 before merging with the Blyth News in 1974 to become the News Post.

1975 saw the launch of the Blyth Valley and Wansbeck Leader, renamed simply The Leader in 1978. That paper in turn was incorporated into the News Post in 1982 to form the News Post Leader.

It’s published by Northeast Press, which has been a division of Johnston Press since 1999.

Its main editorial offices used to be in Whitley Bay and were shared with Johnston’s paid-for title for the area, the News Guardian. However, in April 2014 it moved to Morpeth, where it shares with the Morpeth Herald.

There are two editions, one for Blyth Valley to the south and one for Wansbeck to the north.

It comes out on Thursdays.