On Friday, July 2 1824 the first copy of the weekly North Devon Journal was published in Barnstaple by local bookseller John Avery, costing 7d. The Avery family maintained a long association with the paper. It circulated throughout the North Devon area.

In September 1836 following a reduction in stamp Duty, the Journal’s price was reduced from 7d to 4d. In 1863 the price was dropped to 2d and in 1885 it fell to its lowest ever price of 1d.

A daily edition was produced briefly in 1870, and the same year the Journal printed a second edition to keep readers up to date with news of the Franco-Prussian War.

The Liberal Journal faced serious opposition with the appearance of Robert Lawrence’s North Devon Herald. Appearing in July 1870, it was an avowedly Conservative paper and priced at 1d, it was half the cost of the Journal. However both papers survived as separate entities until 1941 when The North Devon Journal amalgamated with the North Devon Herald to become the North Devon Journal Herald. It finally dropped Herald from the title when it changed from broadsheet to tabloid format in 1986.