A weekly newspaper is set to move back to the street where it first started life 170 years ago.

The Southport Visiter will move to a new “digital hub” on Lord Street, the same road where its first edition was published in 1844, five days before Christmas.

The Visiter has been based at its present Tulketh Street location, around half a mile away, since 1889.

However the ground floor of the property has been empty, bar a brief spell as temporary home to Southport Library in 2010, since the Trinity Mirror-owned title’s printing operation was outsourced to Oldham.

Southport Visiter staff outside their present Tulketh Street offices

Editor Andrew Brown said: “Times have changed. We have been left rattling around in a huge town centre building which no longer needs to house mammoth printing presses and a small army of people to service them.

“We boast a very talented team of reporters and advertising staff equipped with the latest in modern technology who are mobile and better able to engage directly with readers and advertisers.

“In 1844 and in the years since, Visiter reporters have been buzzing all around Southport, speaking to local people, attending major events. That has not changed, and nor will it.”

According to a release on its website, the new headquarters have been designed around The Visiter’s digital ambitions “to better serve our fast-moving and fast growing digital audience”.

Andrew added: “Reporters and advertising staff will be able to call in and utilise, when they need to, a new digital hub on Lord Street.

“Lord Street is where our first home was over 170 years ago. How times change – and how some things remain the same.

“These days, members of our news and advertising teams are more accessible than we have ever been.

“We will be out and about in our community. We will be mobile, engaging people face to face and reporting live from the scene without being confined to an office.”