THE Irish News Group has sold its weekly FarmWeek newspaper to National World Publishing Ltd (NWP), which publishes more than 100 UK regional newspapers including The News Letter.
The north's only weekly newspaper devoted entirely to news, views and featured articles connected to the farming scene, the title was acquired by the Irish News in December 2006 and relocated from Portadown to Donegall Street in Belfast.
Irish News Group managing director Dominic Fitzpatrick said: “FarmWeek has been at the heart of the farming industry in Northern Ireland since it was first published in January 1961, and the new owners have a strong personal connection with the farming community and industry here.
“We are confident this move will provide the right focus for the future of the publication.”
He added: “This decision is part of a wider transformation strategy for our media business. We remain committed to growth and investment in a way that focuses on the ambitions of the collective group companies.”
David Montgomery from National World Publishing said: “We are pleased to add FarmWeek to our portfolio that includes Farming Life and many weekly newspapers, including the Newry Reporter and Banbridge Chronicle which support and report on the agricultural sector.
“We are grateful to the Irish News, which has been a strong custodian of FarmWeek, and we look forward to maintaining and developing the high standard of farming coverage established under its ownership during the last 17 years.”
When the first issue of FarmWeek hit the streets on January 3 1961, Northern Ireland had around 46,000 farm businesses with an average farm size of just 37 acres.
In the following six decades there has been a huge fall in the number of farms and farming families supported on the land.
But the paper has consistently and unerringly charted the massive progress and change across the rural scene, reporting on all aspects of the farming revolution and changing methods of production.
For almost two thirds of its existence, FarmWeek was edited by the late Hal Crowe (he died in August 2019).
He led the FarmWeek team from the late 1960s through to his retirement in 2007, when he was succeeded into the editor's chair by Robert Irwin, who had worked alongside him for many years and who has been with the paper since 1984.
