The newspaper serves Morpeth, Ponteland, Pegswood, Ellington, Lynemouth, Widdrington Station and the outlying districts.

It was printed and published in Morpeth by successive generations of the Mackay family until 1983, when the title was acquired by the Tweeddale Press Group, based in Berwick upon Tweed, where printing then moved, though it was still edited from an office above the Mackays' shop in Morpeth for several years, before moving to separate offices nearby.

Editorial remained in Morpeth until the late 2010s when it moved to Alnwick and then to Sunderland.

The title converted to tabloid in 2013 and was redesigned to more closely resemble the Gazette in 2014.

The Herald typically covers local news, sport and leisure pieces, also printing opinion pieces, reader letters, classified advertisements, and contains a property and real estate pull-out section.