One of the newspaper’s first journalists, William John Townsend Collins, later became editor.

On that day he was full of optimism (and presumably exhausted).

In the first edition he wrote: “Hour by hour it (the paper) improved.

MORE ON THE 130TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARGUS:

• South Wales Argus 130th anniversary: We want to base our newsroom in your community for a day
• 'A watchful guardian': Key figures on on the Argus' role in the community
• In pictures: The Argus at work through the years 
• Argus 130th anniversary: More messages of support
• Argus 130th anniversary: All the Argus editors profiled

“By the end of the day there was on sale a four-page evening paper that was not worse in its content than its old established competitors.”

Those competitors, The Star of Gwent and the Monmouthshire Merlin have long since disappeared, but the Argus has now reached its 130th year.

Our reports are read now in ways which would have staggered the reader in 1892, or even 100 years later.

While the Argus stories appeared then on inky, broadsheet paper, now most of our readers view the Argus on their smartphone – an invention which has revolutionised the way we work.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The paper that appeared on that day in 1892 was an overtly political paper in support of the Liberal Party.

Our early existence was precarious and only the faith of our founder Sir Garrod Thomas allowed the Argus to survive those early years.

An active Liberal, he became the party’s MP for South Monmouthshire in 1917.

His financial support helped the Argus move from its pokey home in Baneswell to High Street, where it remained until 1969.

The last paper it produced in Baneswell marked Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

The Argus remained under local ownership until 1981, when it, like many regional papers was bought by large conglomerates.

Its time on High Street saw the Argus become a Newport institution, with great metal letters proclaiming our home.

The offices here were doubled in 1923 when the site of the next-door Masonic Hall was taken over.

The operation grew again in 1943 when its home was expanded into Market Street.

The presses at the Market Street end of the old High Street building were a part of town centre life.

The South Wales Argus office in High Street

Huge sliding doors would open on warm days while the presses were running and shoppers would stop to watch the towering machinery of the press hall.

Reporter George Willey wrote of that time on High Street: “The Argus’s noble stone and redbrick facade looked out across High Street, while through the massive doors at the rear in Market Street passers-by watched the mighty rotary presses in the machine room turn out the afternoon’s papers.

"Reporters worked at their desks, banging out copy on elderly Imperials and Underwoods. All was telephones, typewriters and chaos.”

Many old Argus hands would recall how, sat in the newsroom upstairs, they would feel the building shake as the presses rolled into life and the first editions were printed. Now there is not so much as a whisper as the news is transmitted via wi-fi, 4G and other versions of the ether.

Being on High Street meant refreshment was never far away. Certain pubs were favoured.

The Trout and the Black Swan in Market Street most widely used because of their nearness. The Black Swan was fondly called the ‘Dirty Duck’ by those who drank there.

The Murenger House was another favourite, where thick, fresh sandwiches could be had at lunch time.

The coming of war and air-raids meant the Argus office, so near to Newport’s Docks, was at risk from bombing.

Workers were asked to stand duty on the roof of the building at night as fire watching sentries.

Typesetter Lyndon Trow, then aged 15, volunteered for the job.

He admits it was not bravery or patriotism which prompted this decision – it was the 7s 6d allowance paid for the duty which made his mind up. This was roughly half his weekly wage.

In the narrow town-centre streets the delivery of newsprint always posed a problem. With twice weekly deliveries, lorries would cause chaos as they tried to squeeze through Market Street.

Drivers would have to wait for the press room staff to manhandle the reels of newsprint, each weighing around 200kg, off the lorry, running them down ‘skids’ into the press room.

The Argus eventually outgrew these cramped conditions.

In 1969, the paper moved to Maesglas. The move was somehow made over the space of one weekend into the purpose-built site where a new press was installed.

The South Wales Argus office, Cardiff Road, Newport

It was here that the pace of change would increase in the last quarter of the century and into the new one.

In 1979, the first daily paper was set by photocomposition and the last was set by the old method of hot metal.

Technological advances and change became a matter of course.

After nearly 100 years as a locally-owned firm, our ownership changed in the 1980s.

In 1981 after much wrangling the Argus was taken over by Express newspapers (publishers of Daily and Sunday Express and Daily Star). Then in 1985 the Express Group was bought by United Newspapers.

In 1999, after just more than 100 years as a broadsheet paper, the Argus began printing in the smaller tabloid format.

The last broadsheet was printed on Friday, March 12, 1999.

The following year, saw us ring in the new millennium with yet another owner, this time US publisher Gannett, which through its UK subsidiary Newsquest acquired Newscom.

They remain the owners of the Argus to the present day.

As our owners changed, so did our production methods.

Peter John, former industry reporter and news editor, in the Maesglas offices of the South Wales Argus in 1980

And this was not without some pain.

December 1986 saw an industrial dispute over the use of new computer technology. The dispute ended in 1987 with agreement on the use of new technology.

The decades since then have seen the industry revolutionised by this technology. Desk-top publishing saw the end of trades like typesetting as computers meant that fewer people were needed to produce the paper.

But the new technology also meant improvements in quality were now possible and affordable.

From 2004 the Argus pages were full-colour.

Other investments like the new £4.5 million press which could print 60,000 copies per hour, made the Argus quicker to produce.

These vast, towering machines are very expensive, costing tens of millions of pounds. But as their cost has grown, so older presses, like the one in Newport have closed.

The Newport press printed its last copy in March 2008.

The Argus is now printed on one of Newsquest’s four presses in the UK at either Oxford or Weymouth.

With this change, the Argus moved to overnight printing and was no longer an ‘evening’ paper.

Now breaking news, which would have been covered by new editions of the paper would always be left to the website.

This is a recognition that the way people consume their news has changed.

They weren’t content to be given to portions of news according to our production timetable. News had to be delivered when they wanted.

The Argus has been happy to do this. Our website traffic has grown from 6,000 users per month in 2000 when our website was launched to more than 4.5 million per month now.

Our social media channels have 81,000 followers of our Facebook page and more than 84,000 Twitter followers. And we have launched a number of Facebook groups over recent years including the South Wales Argus Camera Club, which has more than 4,700 members, We Grew Up in Newport, which has more than 14,500 members and 15,000 members of South Wales Argus Crime News.

We also regularly post on Instagram.

In 2020, just after the country was plunged into the first Covid-19 lockdown the Argus moved from its Maesglas office - which has since been redeveloped into a Lidl supermarket - back into the city centre.

Our new offices are in Chartist Tower - just a short walk from where it all started 130 years ago.

The Argus' new home is in Chartist Tower in Newport City Centre

The comment in the first paper in 1892 told how: “The Argus will strive to promote in every way the welfare of the community among which it circulates. Its conductors will endeavour to deal temperately, fairly and judiciously with subjects that especially concern its readers.”

It also added: “Constant effort will be made to bring into prominence the great natural resources of the district and the important advantages it possesses”.

When William John Townsend Collins, scratched this comment in his Baneswell garret he may have struggled to understand how the Argus has changed, but he’d hopefully see that we’re doing the same job today as he was all those years ago.

Keeping the people of Newport and Gwent informed about their world and telling them about the important things that are happening.