Along the eponymous highway to Heathcote, Nathan Quilty would not be the first to prospect for media gold at the McIvor Times... only the latest.

Three decades ago, I recall driving the 150 km up from Melbourne myself, to consider whether to contemplate the prospects presented by the 157-year-old newspaper - certainly the lifestyle is attractive - eyeballing it, and driving home.

I wouldn't have been the first to do so.

Now, somewhat bravely at a time when other country newspapers are struggling to keep going, Quilty - the publisher of Facebook site Community Deals - has become the newest owner of the Times, buying it from Shepparton News publisher McPherson Media, which has owned it for the past 15 years.

Part of Greater Bendigo, the region - once a magnet for those fossicking for gold - is now better known for its vineyards, producing "some of Australia's most exciting", according to one producer.

For Quilty, a Heathcote local, the deal is an opportunity to broaden his reach into print, a platform Community Deals had abandoned in favour of social media platforms. He declined to say whether the deal had been precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He told GXpress that he was looking forward to getting his first McIvor Times edition out before thinking about planned innovations, which will include integration of the four-year-old Community Deals into it.

Locals speak highly of the publication - marketing and PR consultant Robyn Frampton, who lives in Heathcote, called it "a great little paper - full of all the things that make local papers the gems that they are" - and Quilty praised family-owned McPherson Media for its "custodianship" of the paper, congratulating them for supporting it through "some very tough times".

Launched in 2016 with eight pages, Community Deals had grown steadily to a routine 20 or more pages each issue, latterly online only. Quilty admits he has lots to do, including establishing an independent website for the Times to replace the MMG group-based product on which the story of his acquisition appears.

On his website, he says that with the "innovative and largely popular" Deals platform and readership base, "it had become apparent to me - and many others in town - that we could create something special with the 157-year-old McIvor Times and its loyal readership and clientele".

Community Deals will continue fortnightly basis, and he promises, "once COVID-19 has passed, the door will reopen at 170 High Street".

Peter Coleman

Pictured: Popular Heathcote; echoes from an historic past; how the Times introduced its new owner