The Newcastle Herald is a regional newspaper published in Newcastle, New South Wales (the largest non-capital city in Australia). The only local newspaper to serve the greater Hunter Region and Central Coast region six days a week, it was published as a broadsheet until 1998. In making its move to the tabloid format the paper played a key role in pioneering the trend by Australian newspapers to reduce their size.
The Newcastle Herald was first published under that title on 6 October 1980 when the words 'Morning' and 'Miners Advocate' were removed from its former title, the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (1876-1980). That paper was itself the result of a merger in 1876 between the Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River District News (1858-1876) and the Miners' Advocate and Northumberland Recorder (1873-1876).
Although the Herald's publisher between 1980 and 2003 is recorded as being Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate Pty. Ltd, that company was established in 1980 by Sydney-based John Fairfax Holdings (presumably to maintain the paper's 'local' integrity). The Fairfax company had actually acquired the paper (as The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate) from John Miller Sweet's company in 1977. The Newcastle Herald has since been published by John Fairfax Holdings (2003-2007) and Fairfax Media (2007-).
