Fourth-generation newspaperman Paul Thomas and his publisher partner Damian Morgan have expanded again with the purchase of a cluster of community mastheads to the west and north of Brisbane.

Through their Ipswich Media, the duo has acquired the Fassifern Guardian and sister publications the Moreton Border News and Ipswich Tribune from the Boonah Newspaper Company.

Ipswich Media already owns nearby titles including the Beaudesert Times, Ipswich West Moreton Today, and the Lockyer and Somerset Independent.

Wendy Creighton – who owned the papers with husband Mike and son Drew – said she was “now happy” to hand the baton to Thomas, Morgan and their team, who she believed would continue the tradition of independent, community-focused journalism.

The sale marks the end of an era for the Creighton family, extending over three generations and across almost 60 years. They will hand over in early December.

The Fassifern Guardian takes its origins from the Fassifern Advocate, which was founded in 1901 and amalgamated with the Guardian in 1909. More latterly, the Moreton Border News had served the communities in the western growth corridor around Rosewood for more than a quarter of a century and the Ipswich Tribune turned five last month.

In a statement, Mike and Wendy Creighton, and son Drew – who joined them as managing editor five years ago – said it had been a privilege to serve the communities covered by their newspapers. Paul Thomas said the Creighton family had made “a significant contribution to journalism and the Scenic Rim community over many decades,” and that it was “both a privilege and a responsibility to continue the legacy of these publications, which they have built and nurtured.” Ipswich Media’s commitment was to continue producing strong public-interest journalism and to strengthen the tradition of independent journalism, “so vital to regional communities.

“Independent journalism is critical to a healthy democracy – especially at the local government level – and we are determined to do what we can to keep local news alive in regional Australia.”

Newspapers throughout Australia and the region had been disrupted by the COVID-19 lockdown, but the UTS Centre for Media Transition, in a 2022 submission to a parliamentary committee on communications and the arts, noted that the Creightons had instead expanded circulation, becoming the Fassifern Guardian and Tribune, and had later separated the mastheads to publish weekly newspapers.

The paper is still announces itself as ‘Your award winning local newspaper’ on the strength of the array of prizes editor Drew Creighton and colleagues had collected the previous year at the Queensland Country Press Awards, including ‘best paid newspaper’ and ‘overall journalistic excellence’. Judges called the broadsheet “a big read in both size and content”.

Drew Creighton worked for Nine’s Brisbane Times (then Fairfax Media) as a digital producer, and as a media advisor for the federal government before returning for a second stint in Boonah in 2023 as managing editor.

In addition to the Boonah Newspaper Company titles it acquires next month and its own Ipswich, Beaudesert and Lockyer/Somerset mastheads, Thomas and Morgan’s Today group publishes in Noosa, Warwick and Stanthorpe, Kingaroy, Gympie, Rockhampton and Gladstone, Bundaberg and Ipswich, many of the titles having launched since 2021. It prints in Rockhampton on the Manugraph-equippped plant acquired from News in 2021.

Fassifern, population 18 at the 2021 census, is a rural locality in Queensland’s Scenic Rim, and is crossed by the Cunningham Highway, which takes road travellers across the spectacular Great Dividing Range. With no schools in the immediate locality, it is covered by state primary schools in Kalbar and Aratula, and by the secondary in Boonah.

Peter Coleman

Pictured, from top: Wendy Creighton (photo The Current); Drew Creighton with a classic Mamiya camera on his Facebook page; Wendy Creighton (below left) with journalist Lara Hart, Ipswich Tribune editor Brian Bennion and journalist Rob Mellett, and Drew Creighton at the 2022 QCPA Awards