The Border Watch in South Australia has become the country's latest print casualty, closing at three days' notice after 159 years' publication.
Management announced the closure yesterday, telling its 38 staff the Mount Gambier newspaper and its Millicent and Penola stablemates, their digital editions and the related general printing business would close tomorrow.
Directors, who have been criticised for not exploring other options, said "every effort" had been made to keep the presses running. "The recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly worsened the financial viability of TBW which was already severely impacted by declining advertising revenues and newspaper sales, as well as increasing competition from a variety of digital media platforms," they said.
Proudly locally-owned, the newspaper had been owned by the Laurie and Watson families, and since 1977 the Scott family. Then patriarch Allan Scott, AO - who died in 2008 - built a reputation as one of Australia's richest people, based not only on the local newspaper, but also a trucking business, property interests and his sponsorship of AFL team Port Adelaide.
As well as The Border Watch - last year's Country Press SA 'newspaper of the year' - the company owned the South Eastern Times (Millicent) and The Pennant (Penola). In a statement, directors said staff would receive redundancy, annual and long service entitlements. They thanked staff, as well as readers and advertisers. "Their loyalty during some difficult times in the past year is of the highest order."
Facebook users responded to the announcement with regret, with more than 400 - many of them former members of staff - posting comments.
The ABC quoted former newsagent and Mount Gambier mayor Lynette Martin calling on investors to rally behind the newspaper and "resurrect a new model", and questioned whether it might have been viable if cut from four to two editions a week.
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance regional director Angelique Ivanica also criticised the "swiftness" of the closure. "Giving staff and local communities just three days' notice is insulting to loyal workers and readers alike," she said.