News producers by state or territory
An analysis of April 2022 ANMP data captured the state of local news in local government areas across the country. On this page you’ll find insights into each state and territory.
Rural and regional areas were the worst affected by declines in local news. 31 local government areas had no print or digital local news outlets (represented by grey areas on the map below).
For the latest data and birds-eye view of where and how, local news availability is changing over time, please go to the latest mapping.
This Local News Producers data is a component of the Australian Newsroom Mapping Project; a multi-stage project designed to give a birds-eye view of the health of public interest journalism in Australia.
This data is a resource for members of the public, legislators, and industry dedicated to sustaining public interest journalism in Australia.
The data is actively maintained: to add or correct information please get in touch.
This data is made publicly available on a Creative Commons license to ensure that it can inform research and policy to support the news media.
Suggested citation: Dickson G. and Arturi S. 2022. Australian Newsroom Mapping Project: Local news producers. Melbourne: Public Interest Journalism Initiative. <https://localnews.piji.com.au>
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
NATIONAL INSIGHTS: Types of changes
This graph shows the types of changes (expansions/contractions) experienced by news producers across Australia from 1 January 2019 to March 2022.
NATIONAL INSIGHTS: Number of news outlets
This table shows the total number of news outlets in each state and territory at the end of March 2022.
| CHANGE CATEGORY | ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA | TOTAL | |
| Expansions | 1 | 56 | 2 | 42 | 14 | 4 | 39 | 6 | 164 | |
| Contractions | 1 | 93 | 2 | 80 | 16 | - | 51 | 12 | 255 | |
| NET CHANGE (from Jan. 2019) | - | (37) | - | (38) | (2) | +4 | (12) | (6) | (91) | |
NATIONAL INSIGHTS: LGAs with no local news outlets
An ongoing area of interest in PIJI’s data is which local government areas do not appear to have any local print or digital news producers. Currently, these include:
- Belyuen Shire, NT
- Coomalie Shire, NT
- East Arnhem Region, NT
- Roper Gulf Region, NT
- Tiwi Islands, NT
- West Arnhem Region, NT
- West Daly Region, NT
- Barcaldine Regional Council, QLD
- Barcoo Shire, QLD
- Carpentaria Shire, QLD
- Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire, QLD
- Croydon Shire, QLD
- Diamantina Shire, QLD
- Etheridge Shire, QLD
- Flinders Shire, QLD
- McKinlay Shire, QLD
- Mornington Shire, QLD
- Quilpie Shire, QLD
- Richmond Shire, QLD
- Winton Shire, QLD
- Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire, QLD
- Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire, QLD
- Berri Barmera Council, SA
- Franklin Harbour, District Council of, SA
- Goyder, Regional Council of, SA
- Kimba, District Council of, SA
- Peterborough, District Council of, SA
- Roxby Downs, Municipal Council of, SA
- Central Highlands Council, Tas
- Flinders Council, Tas
- Upper Gascoyne, Shire of, WA
Tasmania
There are currently two Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Tasmania that have no local print or digital news producers; Central Highlands Council and Flinders Council (represented in grey on the map).
The local news ecosystem in Tasmania is faring better than those in other states and territories. It is the only state in a net-positive position compared to 2019, when this mapping project first began.
There are currently 31 LGAs in Australia with no print or digital local news outlets, with rural and regional areas the worst affected.
Local News Across Victoria
There are currently 15 Local Government Areas (LGA) in Victoria that have only one local news producer (represented on the map below in orange).
This includes the state's sixth most populous LGA, Brimbank, which shares one local news producer among a population of just over 200,000 [ABS, 2021].
Despite suffering some closures, Victoria's local news providers were much less affected by COVID-19 lockdowns than those in many other states. Nationally, there are 31 LGAs in Australia without a single local news producer.
Victoria has a dense and diverse media landscape, with a high number of independent local news outlets, small-medium news businesses, as well as large media companies, covering every part of the state but particularly the north, central and Gippsland. The Age and Herald Sun and others cover metropolitan Melbourne, with the latter’s local coverage supported by a network of Leader community newspapers and digital hyperlocals around the state. The Local Paper and Star News Group also have extensive local news coverage around the capital.
Australian Community Media is present in most regional cities in Victoria, with papers in Bendigo, Ballarat, Shepparton, Warrnambool and others.
In the regions, small-medium businesses include North East Media, McPherson Media, Yeates Media and Elliott Newspaper Group.
Independent newspapers exist in almost every local government area across the state.
Victoria also has a large number of community newspapers, particularly in Melbourne and in north/central local government areas like Macedon Ranges, Mount Alexander, Bendigo and Loddon.
Despite multiple lockdowns, including in regional areas, Victoria lost few news outlets over COVID. Papers that did close include independent papers the Kyneton Free Press, Yarram Standard and Great Southern Star, Yeates Media’s East Gippsland News, ACM’s Moyne Gazette and Hepburn Advocate, and News Corp’s Bellarine and Surf Coast Echo.
Due to a technical limitation this map does not display Phillip Island, though the remainder of Bass Coast Shire is present. The island is covered by the Phillip Island and San Remo Advertiser.
Local News Across Western Australia
Since January 2019, Western Australia has experienced six local news outlet expansions and 12 contractions.
WA has a strong community media presence in comparison to other states and territories.
There is one Local Government Area in Western Australia that lacks a local print or digital news outlet- the Shire of Upper Gascoyne. PIJI could not identify regular coverage of Gascoyne Junction in a 2021 audit, though it is likely that the region does fall into the footprint of at least one paper if a major event were to occur.
Western Australia’s media landscape is dominated by Seven West Media. Almost every local government area in the state is covered by a network of 19 SWM regional newspapers, including very remote areas. In Perth, the West Australian and PerthNow cover the whole metro and a network of PerthNow print papers exist across the suburbs.
The other major feature of WA’s media landscape is a strong presence of community newspapers. WA has a network of community resource centres spread particularly across shires in the South West, Great Southern and Wheatbelt regions, and it is common for them to produce regular newspapers focussed on the social and business lives of their communities. Examples here include The Windmill (Shire of Corrigin), Pingelly Times (Shire of Pingelly) and Crosswords (Shire of Yilgarn).
Australian Community Media has reduced its presence in the state since 2019. It has closed three newspapers - the Avon Valley Advocate, Donnybrook-Bridgetown-Manjimup Mail and Collie Mail - and significantly reduced the publication output at the Esperance Express.
As in other states, where ACM has retreated other local papers have emerged, including the Esperance Weekender, Bridgetown Star and Collie River Valley Bulletin.
Local News Across Queensland
Queensland has 15 Local Government Areas (LGAs) with no print or digital local news outlets - the highest number of any Australian state. These LGAs (represented on the map in grey) mostly fall into the federal electorates of Kennedy and Maranoa. They include:
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Queensland recorded a total of 42 local news outlet expansions and 80 contractions from January 2019 to March 2022.
There are a large number of digital/print news producers in Queensland, spread across the state but with a particular concentration in the south-east and Whitsunday region, with smaller news production hubs around Cairns, Hervey Bay and Dalby.
Queensland has seen significant changes since 2019. News Corp closed 15 papers in the state in May 2020 and merged another four into larger regional papers. 24 NCA papers shifted to digital-only publishing in the same year.
Independent outlets in Queensland have seen mixed success. In many regions where News Corp retreated, multiple independent papers simultaneously opened to fill the void. This was particularly true in places like Dalby, Chinchilla, Cairns and Burnett. Over time, many of these startups have closed, leaving only one remaining in many markets.
Queensland has also been the site of sustained growth: the Today brand of newspapers has expanded from being a digital-only news outlet in Noosa to launching eight papers across different regions, buying distressed brands like the Longreach Leader and Mackay Local News and returning them to service, and small expansions interstate, particularly in South Australia.
Due to a technical limitation this map does not display the Wellesley or Torres Strait Islands. PIJI has no record of any news producers in the former. There are three local print news producers covering Torres Shire and Torres Strait Island Regional Council: Cape York Weekly, Koori Mail and Torres News.
Local Government Areas across the ACT
As the ACT does not have local government areas, the outlets on this map are coded to the entire territory.
A quarterly breakdown of changes observed in ACT reported only one expansion and one contraction of news outlets. This included News Corp's launch of the Canberra Star in 2019 and the merging of the Canberra Chronicle into the Queanbeyan Age in 2020.
Therefore, there was no net overall change to news outlets in ACT compared to the significant changes observed in other states and territories such as Queensland and New South Wales.
There are currently 31 Local Government Areas in Australia with no print or digital local news outlets, with rural and regional areas worst affected.
News production in the Australian Capital Territory has remained mostly unchanged over the project so far. We have recorded four print local and three digital local outlets for a total of seven. Two of these – the District Bulletin and the Queanbeyan Age – sit outside of the ACT in New South Wales but provide some coverage of the territory.
Assessing coverage of the ACT is complicated by the presence of the federal government. Most news outlets across the country will contain at least occasional coverage of federal government activities, however, for the purpose of this research project we are only including news producers covering other issues of relevance for residents of the capital. This may include the legislative assembly, local crime and court reporting, planning and development, business and community issues.
News producers in the capital range from the large media companies (Canberra Star, News Corp; Canberra Times, Australian Community Media) to small-medium news businesses focussed on the capital region like RiotACT, and independents such as the Canberra City News.
Only two changes in news production have been observed in the ACT since 2019: News Corp’s launched of the Canberra Star in June 2019 and Australian Community Media’s decision to merge the Canberra Chronicle into the Queanbeyan Age in early 2020
A note on the map: the Australian Capital Territory does not have local government areas and as such outlets in the ACT are coded to the entire territory. The map of the ACT provided as Figure 5 has postcode area subdivisions visible due to a technical constraint.
New South Wales
NSW has recorded a net decline of 37 local news outlets since January 2019.
The 244 print and digital outlets currently operating in NSW are heavily centred in coastal areas and have also been heavily impacted by Australian Community Media's consolidation of news producers in regional areas.
Despite this, the NSW local news sector is still faring better than other states and territories in Australia.
News production in New South Wales is heavily centred in coastal areas, particularly from Bega Valley on the Victorian border north through the Illawarra, Sydney and Central Coast to Port Macquarie-Hastings and the Hunter Valley. Smaller hubs of production exist particularly in Young, around Dubbo, and at Lismore.
The number of outlets in these areas have grown since 2019, while there has been a shift away from the Murray/Riverina, Central West, New England and the Northern Rivers areas.
Changes in New South Wales have been heavily impacted by Australian Community Media’s consolidation of its presence in the state. Since 2020, PIJI has recorded the closure of at least 11 ACM newspapers in regional New South Wales, with a further 14 reducing their service in some way: either by a reduced publication frequency, or, in some cases, largely existing as digital shells that rerun network content produced at other papers.
News Corp also closed some papers in the north of the state in early 2020.
Both companies have also opened outlets in regional New South Wales, however. ACM opened two papers in the Northern Rivers area, while News Corp has launched digital hyperlocal verticals in Lismore, Bowral, Wagga Wagga, and Wollongong, among other places.
There has also been growth among independent news producers, particularly in the Hilltops Council and after larger companies close or merge away local papers.
Local News Across The Northern Territory
There are currently 7 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Northern Territory without local print or digital news producers (represented on the map as grey areas), they include:
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The geographically large LGAs in the NT give the impression that most of the territory receives broad coverage, however, coverage in the NT is overwhelmingly concentrated in a small number of population centres, with very little in smaller and more remote communities.
There are few digital/print news producers in the Northern Territory. News is produced out of Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek by News Corp, Australian Community Media and independents the Tennant & District Times and NT Independent.
Two outlets, both based in Alice Springs, have closed over the past year. Beginning in 2020 News Corp merged the Centralian Advocate into its statewide paper the NT News, first by suspending its print edition, then by redirecting traffic to the News website, and finally by removing any Advocate branding from coverage of Alice Springs. The NT News does still cover Alice, but the local brand has been closed.
Separately, independent news website the Alice Springs News closed in November 2021 due to a worsening financial position for the paper and the health of the editor.
One news outlet has also opened in territory since January 2019: the NT Independent is a Darwin-based news website which covers politics and business.
Due to a technical limitation this map does not display the Tiwi Islands. PIJI has no record of news producers there.
Local News Across South Australia
South Australia has six Local Government Areas (LGAs) without print or digital local news. Five of them are located in the Federal electorate of Grey. These LGAs (represented on the map in grey) include:
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South Australia has recorded 14 local news outlet expansions and 16 contractions since January 2019.
News production in South Australia is centred around Adelaide, the Fleurieu Peninsula, Murray Valley and Mount Gambier. News production in the south-east part of the state up to the capital appears to have improved since 2019, though with some fluctuations across that period.
The south-east of the state was hit hard by news closures in early COVID. Australian Community Media temporarily closed the Naracoorte Herald, Murray Valley Standard, Flinders News and others; while long-standing independents were forced to either merge multiple papers together (such as the River News and Loxton News into the Murray Pioneer) or close completely (The Border Watch, South-Eastern Times and Penola Pennant).
New independent papers emerged in Naracoorte, Murray Bridge and Mount Gambier to fill those temporary gaps and have remained in service even as the closed papers have been slowly revived.
News Corp has expanded in the state, adding digital hyperlocal titles in the Barossa and Clare Valleys and Upper Spencer Gulf.
Along the Eyre Peninsula, however, there has been a reduction in the number of local news outlets. This is largely due to the retreat of ACM from the region: both the West Coast Sentinel and Eyre Peninsula Tribune were closed in 2020, leaving the Port Lincoln Times and new independent the Eyre Peninsula Advocate to cover the area.
The Roxby Downs Chronicle was a brief expansion paper produced ACM in 2019 which has closed, leaving that LGA without any print or digital news outlets.
Due to a technical limitation this map does not display Kangaroo Island, which is covered by Australian Community Media’s The Islander.
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The onset of COVID-19 and other upheavals in the Australian news media landscape have unveiled the rapidly diminishing production of public interest journalism in Australia, particularly in coverage of our councils, parliaments, and courts. PIJI's research show's regional and rural communities have been most adversely affected, with emerging local news gaps in print and online at the forefront of concern.
PIJI's comprehensive research has become a leading point of reference for examining the state of public interest journalism production and availability in Australia. This means we now have a unique opportunity for systemic industry reform, using our Australia-first data to guide short and long-term policy ideas into action.
Public interest journalism in Australia plays a critical role in our democracy. PIJI's research is uncovering indicators of a lack of media plurality and diversity across Australia. This research has the power to help communities and decision makers create effective media policies and interventions that improve the quality and provision of public interest journalism in Australia.