The ''Longford Leader'' is a weekly newspaper, which has published in

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the mee ...

, Ireland since 1897.

History

The Longford Leader was founded, as ''The Longford Leader and Roscommon, Leitrim and Westmeath News'', as a local newspaper with a Nationalist perspective, in 1897, by local activist and M.P., J. P. Farrell, and fellow M.P., Jasper Tully; it was one of a range of Nationalist projects on which they partnered. Farrell was the official proprietor and first editor. It was published on Saturdays, and priced at one penny. As of 2002, the Leader was owned by four shareholders, local businessmen Eugene McGee (holding 47%) and Padraic Gearty, and Patricia Murray and Michael Dolan. In that year, it was fully acquired by

Scottish Radio Holdings Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) was a Scottish media company which owned 22 radio stations, and around 30 local newspapers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. History SRH had its origins in the 1970s when Glasgow was awarded the third licence for ...

(SRH), for 9.1 million euro, after a competition between SRH and the parent company of the Cork Examiner; it made a profit of around 1 million euro for that year, up over 50% from the previous year, with a staff of 20. SRH's policy was not to interfere in operations, and it left the editor and managing director, Eugene McGee, in place.

Johnston Press Johnston Press plc was a multimedia company founded in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1767. Its flagship titles included UK-national newspaper the '' i'', ''The Scotsman'', the ''Yorkshire Post'', the ''Falkirk Herald'', and Belfast's ''The News Letter ...

acquired SRH's newspapers in 2005. The paper is currently owned by the Iconic Newspapers group, controlled by Malcolm Denmark, which acquired Johnston Press's titles in the Republic of Ireland in 2014, for 8.5 million euro after they cost more than 115 million euro to acquire. While data on individual newspapers' performance is not released, the holding company for the Irish regional titles remained profitable as of 2018. As of 2020, the editor is Alan Walsh.

Publication

The ''Longford Leader'' is published weekly on a Wednesday from its offices on the Dublin Road in the town of Longford, reporting on and circulated within

County Longford County Longford ( gle, Contae an Longfoirt) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford. Longford County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county was 46,634 ...

and the surrounding counties. It has a news website, and Facebook and Twitter accounts. The newspaper also has an electronic form (an "e-paper"), and its archives can be accessed on a paid basis from its own site back to 2010, and further back via the Irish Newspaper Archives website. The paper had a circulation of around 13,000 in 2002, from a county population of around 30,000. According to ABC, circulation declined to 7,167 for the period July 2012 to December 2012; this represented a fall of 7% year-on-year.

References

{{Ireland newspapers 1897 establishments in Ireland Newspaper companies of Ireland Newspapers published in the Republic of Ireland

Leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets v ...

Publications established in 1897 Weekly newspapers published in Ireland