Outdated or innovative? Examining news practices that have stood the test of time at one of Australia's longest-serving local newspapers

Abstract

Researchers studying media innovation and local news tend to emphasise the ‘here and now’, focusing on digital advances as the pathway towards more efficient journalism and viable businesses. This paper argues for the importance of examining media practices that have been preserved and valued over time. It advocates for a temporal reflexivity lens to help inform media innovation strategies and policies for the local news sector in the future. We conduct a fine-grained exploration of one of Australia's oldest family-owned local newspapers, The Buloke Times in the state of Victoria, identifying three main areas of the business that have stood the test of time: respect for tradition and reputations, ‘embeddedness’ in place, and fostering company loyalty and collaboration. Ultimately, we suggest that an appreciation of tradition and continuation may play an important role in understanding the future of digital news in small-town communities.

Keywords

Local news temporal reflexivity innovation media history news practices news tradition family owned newspapers

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abernathy

(2018) The Expanding News Desert. Centre for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, School of Media. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Achtenhagen

Melesko

Ots

(2018) Upholding the 4^th estate – exploring the corporate governance of the media ownership form of business foundations. JMM: International Journal on Media Management 20(2): 129–150.

Alfani

(2020) Local newspaper strategy to survive in the digital era. MediaTor 13(1): 69–82.

AMAA (2021) Audited media association of Australia print sales and digital subscriptions. Available at: https://www.auditedmedia.org.au/ed/members (accessed: 31 January 2022)

Anderson

Trembath

(2011) Witnesses to War: The History of Australian Conflict Reporting. Carlton: Melbourne University Press.

Aris

Bughin

(2009) Managing Media Companies. London: Wiley.

Barnes

Dugmore

English

, et al. (2022) ‘This is ridiculous – I need to start a paper …’: an exploration of aims and intentions of regional print proprietors of post-COVID start up newspapers. Media International Australia, March 2022, pp. 1–14. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1329878X221088047 (accessed: 7 May 2022)

Barnhurst

(2011) The problem of modern time in American journalism. KronoScope 11(1/2): 98–123.

Boumans

(2018) Subsidizing the news?: Organisational press releases’ influence on news media’s agenda and content. Journalism Studies 19(15): 2264–2282.

10.

Bowd

(2009) ‘Did you see that in the paper?’: Country newspapers and perceptions of local ‘ownership’. Australian Journalism Review 31(1): 49–61.

11.

Bryman

(2008) Social Research Methods. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

12.

Buloke Times (2021) About Us. Available at: https://www.buloketimes.com/about-us (accessed 15 September 2021)

13.

Buloke Times (2022) Send us a story. Available at: https://www.buloketimes.com/submit-a-story (accessed 3 March 2022)

14.

Carlson

Lewis

(2019) Temporal reflexivity in journalism studies: Making sense of change in a more timely fashion. Journalism 20(5): 642–650.

15.

Chyi

Tenenboim

(2017) Reality check: Multiplatform newspaper readership in the United States, 2007–2015. Journalism Practice 11(7): 798–819.

16.

De Maeyer

(2016) Adopting a ‘material sensibility’ in journalism studies. In: T

Witschge

Anderson

Domingo

Hermida

(eds) The SAGE Handbook of Digital Journalism. London: Sage, pp. 460–476.

17.

Eldridge

Hess

Tandoc

, et al. (2019) Navigating the scholarly terrain: Introducing the digital journalism studies compass. Digital Journalism 6(9): 1136–1149.

18.

Flick

(2009) An Introduction to Qualitative Research. 4th ed. London: Sage.

19.

Franciscato

(2005) Journalism and change in time experience in western society. Brazilian Journalism Research 1(1): 155–175.

20.

Franklin

(2006) Local Journalism and Local Media: Making the Local News. London: Routledge.

21.

Freeman

Hutchins

(2016) Digital media and local democracy: News media, local governments and civic action. Australian Journalism Review 38(2): 19–30.

22.

Galtung

Ruge

(1965) The structure of foreign news: The presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus crises in four Norwegian newspapers. Journal of Peace Research 2(1): 64–90.

23.

Garfrerick

(2010) The community weekly newspaper: Telling America’s stories. American Journalism 27(3): 151–157.

24.

Griffen-Foley

(2019) Inaugural KS inglis address: Making Australian media history. Media International Australia 170(1): 3–21.

25.

Gulyas

Baines

(eds) (2020) The Routledge Companion to Local Media and Journalism. Oxon: Routledge.

26.

Gutsche

Hess

(2018) Geographies of Journalism: The Imaginative Power of Place in Making Digital News. London: Routledge.

27.

Harte

Howells

Williams

(2018) Hyperlocal Journalism: The Decline of Local Newspapers and the Rise of Online Community News. 1st ed. Oxon: Routledge.

28.

Hess

Waller

(2017) Local Journalism in a Digital World. Palgrave: London.

29.

Hess

Waller

(2020) Charting the media innovations landscape for regional and rural newspapers. Australian Journalism Review 42(1): 59–75.

30.

Hsieh

Shannon

(2005) Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research 15(9): 1277–1288.

31.

Jenkins

Neilsen

(2020) Preservation and evolution: Local newspapers as ambidextrous organisations. Journalism 21(4): 472–488.

32.

Jones

(1999) The inestimable value of family ownership. Neiman Reports 53(3): 63–64.

33.

Kirk

(2012) Letts, Godfrey William (1898–1987), Australian Dictionary of Biography. Available at: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/letts-godfrey-william-14174 (accessed 29 November 2021)

34.

Kirkpatrick

(1995) Purposely parochial: Three provincial dailies 1930–1990. Australian Studies in Journalism 4: 79–101.

35.

Kirkpatrick

(1996) Survival and persistence: A case study of four provincial press sites. Australian Studies in Journalism 5: 158–188.

36.

Kirkpatrick

(2010) The Bold Type. Ascot Vale: The Victorian Country Press Association.

37.

Levine

Morgan

Tarrant

(2003) ‘Readers-per-copy’: Beyond the phoney figure debate to understanding reader choice and how to drive it your way. Conference paper in Worldwide Readership Research Symposium, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, 26–29 October.

38.

Madsen

(2014) Facts and friction: Traditions and innovation within ABC radio national. Australian Journalism Review 36(2): 37–49.

39.

Martin

(2020) Saving the silent voyager: Mapping virtues in the writing of Eva Sommer, Australia’s first Walkley award winner. Australian Journalism Review 42(2): 261–277.

40.

Martin

Martins

(2018) Outsourced credibility: A quasi-experimental study of corrections at newspapers pre and post outsourcing of coy editing. Journalism Studies 19(2): 247–267.

41.

Matthews

Hodgson

(2021) Provincial newspapers: Lessons from history. Media History 27(2): 125–128.

42.

McKinstry

(2020) Shane O’Shea: sport … empowering communities. Available at: https://aflcentralvic.com.au/shane-oshea-sport-empowering-communities/(accessed 29 November 2021)

43.

McNair

(2016) The ABC should work with commercial media outlets, not compete with them. Available at: https://theconversation.com/the-abc-should-work-with-commercial-media-outlets-not-compete-with-them-56919 (accessed 5 January 2018)

44.

Meeks

(2020) Undercovered, underinformed: Local news, local elections, and U.S. Sheriffs. Journalism Studies 21(12): 1609–1626.

45.

O’Hara

(2021) What can we learn from independent family owned local media groups? Case studies from the UK. In: A

Gulyas

Baines

(eds) The Routledge Companion to Local Media and Journalism. Oxon: Routledge.

46.

Pamco (2020) What’s the difference between readership and circulation? Available at: https://pamco.co.uk/how-it-all-works/readership-circulation-trends/difference-readership-circulation/ (accessed 5 August 2020)

47.

Picard

van Weezel

(2008) Capital and control: Consequences of different forms of newspaper ownership. JMM: The International Journal of Media Management 10(1): 22–31.

48.

Pierce

Furo

(1990) Employee ownership: Implications for management. Organizational Dynamics 18(3): 32–43.

49.

PIJI (2020) Public interest journalism initiative. Available at: https://anmp.piji.com.au/. https://piji.com.au/ (accessed 31 January 2022)

50.

Pusey

McCutcheon

(2011) From the media moguls to the money men? Media concentration in Australia. Media International Australia 140(1): 22–34.

51.

Reader

Hatcher

(2021) Business and ownership of local media: an international perspective. In: A

Gulyas

Baines

(eds) The Routledge Companion to Local Media and Journalism. Oxon: Routledge, pp. 205–213.

52.

Reich

(2010) Measuring the impact of PR on published news in increasingly fragmented news environments: A multifaceted approach. Journalism Studies 11(6): 799–816.

53.

Richardson

(2014) From ‘rags’ to ‘riches’: The evolution of the Australian suburban newspaper. Media International Australia 150(1): 83–88.

54.

Schudson

(1986) When: deadlines, datelines and history. In: RK

Manoff

Schudson

(eds) Reading the News. New York: Pantheon Books, pp. 79–108.

55.

Sheller

(2015) News now: Interface, ambience, flow, and the disruptive spatio-temporalities of mobile news media. Journalism Studies 16(1): 12–26.

56.

Sjovaag

(2014) Homogenisation or differentiation?: The effects of consolidation in the regional newspapers market. Journalism Studies 15(5): 511–521.

57.

Sneed

Riffe

(1987) The Publisher as official: Conflict of interest or libertarian vestage. In: Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, August 1987.

58.

The Bulletin (1887) Mr, Godfrey Morgan, July 23 edition, p14, Available at: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-507985975/view?partId=nla.obj-507998102#page/n13/mode/1up (accessed 02 February 2022)

59.

The Buloke Times (2020a) Invitation, July 28 edition, p3. Available at: https://cog-aap.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/n/493/2020/Jul/27/rlDnRSuE1Sz6Iia0Lmz (accessed 10 October 2021)

60.

The Buloke Times (2020b) Buloke Times Goes Online, July 31 edition, p1. Available at: https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=https://cog-aap.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/n/493/2020/Jul/30/qcAcu6hrz6MBpA3pRAOm.pdf (accessed 10 October 2021)

61.

The Donald Times (1916) Notice, October 20 edition, p3. Available at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/14882175 (accessed 10 October 2021)

62.

The Donald Times (1918a) Advertise in the ‘Times’, June 8 edition, p4. Available at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/14881193 (accessed 1 September 2021)

63.

The Donald Times (1918b) Donald Red Cross, January 15 edition p2. Available at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130096739/14881437 (accessed 1 September 2021)

64.

Tilbrook

(2012) Through Our Eyes: 100 Years of Country Press SA. Eastwood: Country Press South Australia.

65.

Usher

(2018) Breaking news production processes in US metropolitan newspapers: Immediacy and journalistic authority. Journalism 19(1): 21–36.

66.

Van Heekeren

(2010) ‘Office boys’ or intellectuals?: Sydney morning herald editors from 1903–1937. Australian Journalism Review 32(2): 75–88.

67.

Wagemans

Witsche

(2019) Examining innovation as process: Action research in journalism studies. Convergence 25(2): 209–224.

68.

Wall

(2015) Citizen journalism: A retrospective on what we know, an agenda for what we don’t. Digital Journalism 3(6): 797–813.

69.

Wenzel

(2019) Engaged journalism in rural communities. Journalism Practise 13(6): 708–722.

70.

Williams

(2006) Profit before product?: ownership and economics of the local press. In: B

Franklin

(ed) Local Journalism and Local Media: Making the Local News. London: Routledge, pp. 83–92.

71.

Willis

(2021) Local newspapers and a regional setting in New South Wales: parochialism, mythmaking and identity. Media History 27(2): 197–209.

72.

Zelizer

(1993) Journalists as interpretive communities. Critical Studies in Mass Communication 10(3): 219–237.

73.

Zelizer

(2018) Epilogue: Timing the study of news temporality. Journalism 19(1): 111–121.

74.

Zelizer

(2021) Why journalism’s default neglect of temporality is a problem. Media, Culture & Society 43(7): 1213–1229.