Bill BrowneJournal publisher Bill Browne invites you to share in our 275th anniversary

HOW many other weekly newspapers can claim to be 275 years old? If you go to the British Newspaper Library they will not give you a straight answer.

They can tell you how many similar newspapers were launched in the UK before the Salisbury Journal and it numbers approximately 20, but how many have given uninterrupted coverage since?

At the risk of starting a debate that might feature in our letters pages for weeks to come, the Salisbury Journal is, to the best of our knowledge, the third oldest weekly newspaper in Britain.

But before we get carried away about the age of this famous old newspaper, it is worth pausing and asking why the Journal has been so successful in maintaining and increasing its sale over the decades?

I believe it is because the Journal has served its readers and advertisers well. In return they have repaid us many times over with their loyalty and support.

It is also because successive editors and managers have seen the sense in moving with the times at a pace not to leave their regular followers behind.

In its early days the Journal relied largely on news from London; today it is very much a newspaper of record for Salisbury, its surrounding region of south Wiltshire, the New Forest and parts of Dorset.

It will have seen its biggest changes during the past 75 years as radio, television and now digital media have influenced the news agenda and delivery.

During the inter-war years, local papers reached fewer homes than now; there was no local or regional news on the "wireless" and evening papers did not penetrate rural Wiltshire until the 1930s. Some weekly papers published summaries of national news and the speeches of their MPs and visiting politicians were reported at length.

Photographs were rare and reproduction indifferent - not something that can be levelled at today's Journal, with its digital pictures, used mostly in colour.

The arrival of the 24-hour rolling news media seems to have affected all bar those newspapers like the Journal, which stays mainly below the radar of the big news gatherers in its constant effort to report the things that are important to the community it serves.

Our weekly diet is one of what is happening down your street. We look for the things that might have an effect on your lives as well as the many other items that you might find of interest. We look to entertain and inform, provide coverage of the events that are important and remind you a little of the history of the region.

But more than this we pride ourselves on being a friend of the family, a newspaper that is welcome in every home, links generations, and enriches the social and commercial fabric of the community.

To our advertisers we are the premier print media in the region, reaching in excess of 75,000 readers weekly and with a circulation that has reached the record figure of 30,000 per week.

But this success is for nothing if we do not continue to take pride in the newspapers we produce. Our teams of journalists, advertising staff, administration, accountants, distributors and production staff put in a tremendous effort each week to ensure that we deliver to you a newspaper that holds itself in every measure against the best of the Journals of the past.

In producing this 16-page Birthday Announcement we are heralding the start of a year of celebrations which we hope you will all feel part of. Throughout 2004 we will be reminding you of years gone by and inviting you to share your memories of links with the Journal.

On behalf of Salisbury Newspapers and our team of staff I would like to officially open our 275th anniversary year.