A hyperlocal editor has celebrated the 10th anniversary of the launch of his newspaper and its 250th edition concurrently.

Richard Gurner has marked the two milestones at the Caerphilly Observer, which he launched as a digital-only title in 2009 and which now employs six people.

A fortnightly print edition followed in a reverse-publishing venture in May 2013 because of reader demand.

Today, the paper maintains its print circulation of 10,000 and an online readership of 85,000 monthly visitors.

Richard now employs six other people at the Observer and is now recruiting for a new local democracy reporter.

The job is being advertised on HTFP and can be found here.

Richard, pictured, wrote in an editorial: “An industry colleague recently told me we were like those early pioneering publishers – reshaping local news.

“But like them, we are only going to do it successfully with the support from our local community – be it members directly contributing funds, or via local businesses and others who support what we do through advertising.

“Thank you for all of your support over the past decade and beyond, and thank you to our long-term advertisers for sticking with us, as well as all of the outlets that stock our newspaper.

“We couldn’t do it without you.”