page_title: Falkirk Herald
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Falkirk Herald / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: The front page of the first edition of The Falkirk Herald, published on 14 August 1845
context_page_description: The Falkirk Herald is a weekly newspaper and daily news website published by JPIMedia. It provides reportage, opinion and analysis of news, current affairs and sport in the towns of Falkirk, Grangemouth, Larbert and Denny as well as the neighbouring villages of Polmont, Redding, Brightons, Banknock and Bonnybridge. The paper's circulation area has a total population of 151,600, the fifth largest urban area in Scotland. The Falkirk Herald had an audited circulation of 21,937 in the six months from July-December 2012, making it the biggest selling local weekly newspaper in Scotland. It was named Weekly Newspaper of the Year at the 2013 Scottish Press Awards.
context_section_description: The Falkirk Herald and Stirlingshire Monthly Advertiser was established by Alexander Hedderwick, a Glasgow-based lawyer. The first edition went on sale on Saturday, 14 August 1845.
  Less than a year later the fledgling title was sold to Archibald Johnston, whose grandfather had first established a printing business in 1763. Johnston moved production of the Herald to Falkirk, and the first edition to be printed in the town went on sale on 13 August 1846.
  The Herald was the first newspaper purchased by the Johnston family, and the title's increasing size and influence would play a crucial part in growing the company which would become the present day Johnston Press publishing empire.
  The Falkirk Herald switched from monthly to weekly publication in 1851 and its first full-time editor, Mr J. Finlay, was appointed on the recommendation of Alexander Russell, editor of The Scotsman.
  During its first decade of publication the newspaper campaigned vigorously for Falkirk to be granted municipal burgh status. This would allow for the creation of a modern council to replace the medieval system of 'stentmasters' who had controlled local affairs for centuries and were widely viewed as incompetent. Burgh status would also mean the town could raise money needed to fund urban improvements, such as water supply and roadworks. A parliamentary bill enshrining these changes in law was eventually passed in 1859.
  Following the death of Archibald Johnston in 1877, control of the paper passed to his fourth son James, and eventually to Frederick, his youngest son, in 1882. Frederick Johnston was to remain as publisher of The Falkirk Herald for 53 years. Under his leadership, circulation of the Herald grew from around 7000 to 15,000 a week as public literacy rates improved and the demand for reading materials increased. In 1891, Johnston established the Linlithgow Gazette to serve the neighbouring county of Linlithgowshire.
  The author Neil Munro worked briefly as a journalist for the paper in 1890.
  The newspaper's staff moved into a purpose-built two-storey office in Falkirk High Street in 1909.
caption: The front page of the first edition of The Falkirk Herald, published on 14 August 1845
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