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Proud
Tradition Over Half-A-Century
Our
story started in 1969
Four
very different men - Gordon Barton, Maxwell Newton, Peter Isaacson and
Ash Long - have been at the helm of our newspaper group since 1969.
Four
very different chapters for four very different eras in Australia.
Today, the Local Media Pty Ltd group publishes the Melbourne
Observer weekly newspaper, the Brisbane
Sun and Sydney News
monthlies, Travel
Monthly across Australia, and the National
Observer section.
Gordon
Barton: Melbourne's first Sunday paper
Challenge
to giant media groups
Transport
company chief Gordon Barton was the first publisher of the Melbourne
Sunday Observer, with the first edition going to press on Sunday,
September 14, 1969.
Barton, co-owner of IPEC, was active in politics, first with the Liberal
Reform Group and later with the Australia Party. In 1969, Australia was
in the final part of the 27-year reign of the Liberal conservative
government, most of it led by Sir Robert Menzies.
Barton was Melbourne's first major independent press operator. In
October 1970, he founded the Sunday Review newspaper (later Nation
Review) which was to play a leading role in Australian politics for
the next 10 years. He took on the media giants of the day: The Herald
& Weekly Times Ltd; John Fairfax & Sons/David Syme & Co.;
Australian Consolidated Press (Packer family); and the growing News
Limited (Murdoch family).
The Observer proved a costly experiment for Gordon Barton and his
business partner Greg Farrell. The project lost $1.5 million in just 18
months. More early history is available at www.melbourneobserver.com.au/history.htm
The final of 78 issues of the Observer was published on March 7,
1971.
Maxwell
Newton
L
UPDATE:
T
See
Also
Max
Newton in America
Peter
Isaacson
L
UPDATE:
T
Ash
Long
L
UPDATE:
T
Head
Office: 30 Glen Gully Road, Eltham, Vic 3095
Phone: 1800 231 311. Fax: 1800 231 312.
International Phone: (03) 9439 9927. Fax: (03) 9431 6247
E-Mail: editor@LocalMedia.com.au
Copyright
© 2015
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Local Media Pty Ltd has a 46-year heritage.
The Melbourne Observer newspaper was
established on September 14, 1969.
Click here to
see our first TV commercial from
Saturday, October 26, 1969.
The Brisbane Sun newspaper,
now in its 12th year, is available free monthly
across more than 200 Brisbane suburbs.
The Sydney News newspaper,
now in its 12th year, is available free monthly
across more than 200 Sydney suburbs.
Travel Monthly
magazine,
first published in 2002, is available free
every month across Australia.
It has a readership catchment of 105,000.
The National Observer
section,
now in its second year, is available monthly
inside each of the Melbourne
Observer,
Sydney News and Brisbane
Sun.
Total combined readership of 105,000.
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