ON New Year’s Eve, 1836, the first issue of the Downpatrick Recorder was printed by hand and delivered to its readers. In the 1880s, steam power was introduced to make the production process faster and more effective. Today, over 170 years later, the Down Recorder is created using the most up-to-date computer and digital technology. Production methods may have changed but the same care and craftsm
anship that went into that first issue is still evident today. And that’s what makes us Down District’s best-selling newspaper. The paper was first published, as The Downpatrick Recorder and was the first newspaper published in Downpatrick and was owned by Conway Pilson. Pilson was an astute businessman who found out that the English daily papers were delivered to Newry port on their way to Belfast and arranged for copies to be delivered to his Downpatrick printworks early where he copied the imperial news, thus getting the up-to-date news on the streets hours before the other papers were delivered to the town. In those days there was no such thing as copyright and papers shamelessly stole each other's copy. This strategy enabled the paper to grow from its initial print run of 875 impressions to over 5000 copies within a few months. Conway Pilson relinquished control of the paper in 1876 to Joseph S. Clarke died in 1890. His widow married W.Y. Crichton in 1894 and their family continues to produce the paper to this day. From 6 December 2000 an on-line version of the paper became available. The Down Recorder is one of Northern Ireland’s oldest newspapers with a history dating back to 1836. With its circulation, independently certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Down Recorder circulates from Comber in the north of County Down to Newcastle in the south, and from Lisburn in the west to the Ards Peninsula in the east. It is the best-selling weekly newspaper in the towns and villages of Downpatrick, Ballynahinch, Saintfield, Ballygowan, Crossgar, Killyleagh, Strangford, Ardglass and Killough, and is the second best-selling weekly newspaper in Newcastle, Castlewellan, Dundrum, Clough, Killinchy, Comber and Carryduff. The Down Recorder has the strongest pe*******on of the Down District marketplace of any of the weekly papers circulating locally. An average weekly readership of 68,000 means that the Down Recorder goes into 93 per cent of all local homes.
10 things you didn't know
about the Down Recorder
1 Nearly half a ton of metal was used each week when the Recorder was produced using the old 'hot metal' process. Every Monday morning, metal used during the previous week was melted down on the premises and formed into ingots which Linotype type-setting machines transformed into metal type.
2 Each week several hundred copies of the Recorder are sent overseas to places as far away as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India.
3 Forty five years ago a full Recorder print run took around 12 hours to complete. Today's print run is completed in less than an hour, with a greatly increased circulation.
4 The decision to produce the Recorder in a tabloid form in 1983 was a spectacular success. Within months, we won the prestigious Rothman's Press Awards for the best provincial weekly in Northern Ireland.
5 A year's supply of Recorders, with every page placed end-to-end, would reach from Downpatrick to New York!
6 The Down Recorder is haunted! Our Church Street premises, formerly Downpatick's main post office, is reputedly haunted by a postman who is believed to have died in mysterious circumstances.
7 The Recorder has only had seven editors in 170 years. The longest serving was W. Crichton, who remained at the helm for 65 years.
8 The Recorder has never missed an issue in 170 years. Even during the war years and power strikes in the 1970s the paper has hit the streets every week.
9 The Recorder carries on average around 200 stories per week, ranging from one paragraph reports to specialised features.
10 The Recorder depends a great deal upon correspondents and officials from the district's wealth of clubs, societies and organisations who send in news reports or let us know of forthcoming events. It's a service which we deeply appreciate and never pass over lightly.
