The first Argus came off the printing press 120 years ago today. To celebrate editor KEVIN WARD looks back at how things have changed in more than a century of publication.

ON THIS day in 1892 the first edition of the South Wales Argus was published from a small office in the Baneswell area of Newport.

The South Wales Argus and Monmouthshire Daily Leader, as it was initially called, cost a halfpenny and contained only advertisements on its front page.

Today we celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Argus.

And what a remarkable journey this newspaper has been on since that first edition – which promoted the Argus as the best newspaper for “local news, shipping intelligence, mining notes, sporting, athletics and monetary matters”.

Back then the Argus was the only source of local news for most of its readers.

In 2012 the competition is hotter than ever – the proliferation of local radio, rolling 24-hour television news and the internet means news is available immediately wherever you are in the world.

The first editor of the Argus, Charles Stentiford, would no doubt marvel at the myriad ways in which we now deliver news, sport and information to the people of Gwent and beyond.

The printed newspaper, our website, tablets, mobile phones, Twitter, Facebook, all are now part of everyday working life in a newsroom that I, as only the eighth editor in the paper’s history, have the privilege of running.

There are plenty of doommongers ready to write off local newspapers, and our industry continues to go through tough times as commercial revenues decline.

But the reality is that newspapers like the Argus are still in pretty good health.

Print sales may be declining (and that has been the case for 50 years) but readership via the internet and other digital means continues to grow.

Across print and digital the Argus now has a bigger audience than it had five years ago.

Rest assured, local newspapers are not dying – they are just changing to meet the needs of their readers.

The Argus has changed immeasurably since 1892.

And almost every change has been because our readers wanted something different and because technology allowed us to deliver what they wanted.

So news replaced advertisements on the front page; colour printing took over from black and white; the paper moved from broadsheet to compact format; and now we deliver local news when, where and how our readers want it.

But the core of what we do has changed little in 120 years.

Despite all the additional competition, we remain the first choice for Gwent news, sport and information.

No other medium does what we do.

We continue to fight for local causes, to campaign on local issues, to stand up for our readers.

We continue to hold public figures and bodies to account.

Above all, we continue to report the local news accurately, fairly and objectively.

It is an honour to be the editor of the Argus. But I am only the latest in a line of custodians.

The Argus is your newspaper.

It has been for 120 years and it will be for many more to come.