IT is more than a little disconcerting to look at familiar workplaces which were once occupied by vibrant institutions, packed with people, energy and intrigue, and realise how much they have been changed by the passage of time.

Every business has to evolve, and reinvent itself or face decline, and the newspaper industry, in which I have been involved for almost half a century and which retains a strong presence across Ireland, north and south, is no exception.

I am glad that against all trends, Belfast still supports three separately owned indigenous daily titles, all firmly operating with their own distinctive characteristics, but walking past the offices which they vacated as requirements altered, as I did last week, and reflecting on their history, is an unusual experience.

The biggest of them, by some distance, is the former HQ of The Belfast Telegraph and The Sunday Life, at the junction of Royal Avenue and Donegall Street, which these days is used as an entertainment and concert venue before a much-delayed redevelopment scheme gets under way at an unspecified date.

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It is due to become a six to eight-storey mixed-use complex with retail, administrative and industrial units, as well as pubs and restaurants and........

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