Sunday Life (newspaper)


The Sunday Life is a tabloid newspaper in Northern Ireland and has been published since 23 October 1988. It is the sister paper of The Belfast Telegraph and is owned by Independent News & Media.

History

The Sunday Life was born on 20 April 1988, at that time the Belfast Telegraph was owned by the Thomson International Organisation. After getting the go-ahead at an executive meeting, Belfast Telegraph managing director Bob Crane called together his senior executives and they organised a private conference to plan the launch of the Sunday Life. He booked the small Drumnagreagh Hotel near Ballygally on the Antrim coast and there the blueprint for the Sunday Life was created. Crane made two immediate appointments – Ed Curran and Margaret Clarke. Curran, deputy editor of the Belfast Telegraph who joined the company in 1966, would be the editor. He would go on to become Belfast Telegraph editor. Clarke, a key figure in management, was asked to assume additional responsibilities as general manager of Sunday Life. With so many executives away from the Belfast Telegraph HQ rumours were rife in media circles that something was being planned so Crane decided that a statement had to be issued to clarify the position. This statement became known as "the Drumnagreagh Declaration". This statement was issued on 29 April 1988. Ed Curran and Roy Lilley, the Belfast Telegraphs editor, were asked to draft a press release. During a coffee break as the new paper was being planned at the Drumnagreagh Hotel in Co Antrim, they sat at an old typewriter in the hotel's office to hammer out what became known as "the Drumnagreagh Declaration":

Awards

At the CIPR NI Media Awards in June 2016 the paper was awarded the Newspaper of the Year title, an award it has held in Northern Ireland for the past two years.
In 2015 and 2017 Sunday Life was also awarded the UK Daily/Sunday Newspaper of the Year title at the Society of Editors' Regional Press Awards in London.

Circulation

Average print circulation was approximately 90,000 copies per issue in 2004 and had dropped to approximately 30,000 by late 2018.

Columnists