General News
11 March, 2025
New ownership at the Stawell Times-News
Friday, March 7, marked a new era for the Stawell Times-News.
Friday, March 7 marked a new era for the Stawell Times-News.
That day's edition is the first published by West Vic News Pty Ltd – our small publishing business based in Ararat which also includes two other newspapers – the Ararat Advocate and the Pyrenees Advocate.
The addition of the Stawell Times-News to our company is an enormously important step because it gives us three adjoining marketplaces.
It’s no secret that ‘traditional’ media like newspapers, radio and television no longer has the support we once did.
Advertising is the key to our success, but over the past 20 years, the slice of advertising revenue spent with local newspapers has dropped.
But newspapers still command good readership and local newspapers are still the only truly reliable news source in places like Northern Grampians Shire, Ararat Rural City and Pyrenees Shire.
Plenty of posts are made on social media platforms like Facebook and X, but many of them are based on rumour and half truths and so many are completely inaccurate. The local paper has a commitment to accuracy and fair reporting.
The Stawell Times-News will operate in a similar way to our other two newspapers.
We will be unashamedly local and fair.
We aim to cover news relevant to readers in Stawell, Halls Gap, Great Western, Marnoo and Glenorchy. We certainly don’t intend importing content from far away with little local relevance.
We also love local opinion.
I urge local readers to flood us with Letters to the Editor and story ideas. I urge readers to get in touch about community events, celebrations, milestone birthdays and anniversaries, workplace achievements and other stories of human interest.
We will never be perfect and we will never please everyone.
But we will strive to deliver a quality, parochial, unashamedly local newspaper each week that gives all sides of the story and treats everyone with fairness and respect.
In return we need your support.
Running a newspaper isn’t cheap.
Some people think the local paper miraculously appears out of thin air every Friday morning with no resources, no staff and no man hours.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Like all businesses, we need a steady stream of income to pay wages, rents, insurance, printing and courier fees.
Good newspapers and good journalism come at a cost.
If we prove ourselves as a valuable resource to the Stawell and wider Northern Grampians community, please support us in return by buying the paper, placing a classified or an advertisement.
That’s the way we will survive and continue delivering the news for the local community.
Over coming weeks, we will be finalising staff and opening an office at 134 Main Street Stawell.
I’m really pleased that the Stawell Times-News advertising representative David Clough will stay with us and we’re in the process of finding one or two locally based reporters.
I’m very happy to speak with locals about story ideas or to hear about the positives and negatives of this publication.
Please contact me on 0428 525 909 or email publisher@theadvocate.net.au.
Read More: Great Western, Stawell, Marnoo, Halls Gap, Glenoprchy