Tasmania’s newest newspaper, the (currently) monthly News of the Midlands is up to issue number five, with reports of a welcome response.
Editor-publisher Damian Bester – who also owns the New Norfolk and Derwent Valley News – is hoping to turn the newcomer fortnightly, the same as its stablemate.
The paper, which has a cover price of A$3, launched in March with the distribution of 9,000 free copies. A selling point appears to be that is printed on Tasmanian newsprint, produced at the Boyer mill which is owned by David Marriner, who bought it from Norske Skog in 2025.
Bester claims “an insider’s understanding of local government”, having been elected to the Derwent Valley Council on two occasions, and is a past Newspapers in Education manager at NewsCorp Australia’s Hobart Mercury.
The New Norfolk and Derwent Valley News launched in 2020, with frequency increased to fortnightly the following year.