Greenock Telegraph celebrates 150th birthday

IF you are in Greenock today, perhaps you might want to take a trip to one of its shopping centres, to help the local paper celebrate its 150th birthday.

As reported last week on Spike, the Greenock Telegraph is partly marking the auspicious occasion by inviting former reporters pen some memories.

And today, cash prizes are being handed out by the paper in the town’s Oak Mall shopping centre. A civic reception is also on the cards, plus, in the summer, a ‘People’s Party’.

According to the latest circulation figures, the Greenock Telegraph’s sales were down 1.1 per cent, year-on-year, making it the fifth best-performing evening newspaper in the UK, and the best in Scotland – its nearest Scottish rival, the Evening Times, suffering a 2.5 per cent drop.

Last year, it was crowned ‘Regional Newspaper of the Year’ by the UK National Federation of Newsagents.

In the Greenock Blitz of 1941, when the German airforce, the Luftwaffe, landed a direct hit on the paper’s office, it failed to stop its continued publication.

And the paper’s recent ‘Fight the Cuts’ campaign, against cutbacks at Inverclyde Royal Hospital, was the latest in a long line of triumphs.