PIPI: Q1/26 Data Changes
The following changes were made in the Public Interest Publishers Index (PIPI) between 1 January 2026 – 31 March 2026.
To access the public News Producers interface, please click here.
To access the public Changes interface, please click here.
To access the Q1 data sheet, please click here.
To access previous quarter data sheets, please click here.
Due to a potential conflict of interest with my employment at the Local & Independent News Association, any significant changes that affect LINA members have been reviewed by PIPI’s Independent Advisor, Dr Alison McAdam. These are marked with an asterisk.
Market changes in Q1
| Date | Outlet | State | Change |
| 04/03/26 | Hervey Bay Sun | QLD | Outlet opened |
| 02/03/26 | Bridgetown-Greenbushes Star1 | WA | Outlet opened |
| 22/02/26 | North Coast Times* | NSW | Outlet opened |
| 02/02/26 | Central Coast Daily News* | NSW | Set as open |
| 22/01/26 | Business News Australia | QLD | Outlet closed |
| 22/01/26 | Hervey Bay Advertiser | QLD | Outlet closed |
| 15/01/26 | Sunbury Life | VIC | Outlet closed |
| 07/01/26 | Seven West Media Limited | NSW | Change of ownership |
| 02/01/26 | The Bulli & Clifton Times | NSW | Outlet closed |
| 01/01/26 | Narromine Star | NSW | Set as open |
| 01/01/26 | South West Local News* | VIC | Outlet opened |
Changes were observed at 11 news outlets in Q1.
The Hervey Bay Sun2 is a new newspaper in the Fraser Coast Region which launched in March 2026. It is the second title in the region from publisher Craig Winter, after the Maryborough Sun.
The Bridgetown-Greenbushes Star reopened on 2 March after a more than two-year closure. The title was first launched as a news website in July 2020 before shifting to print-only publication from 2021. It closed in September 2023 after IVE’s printing facility in Mandurah was shut down.3 It has reopened as a print-only title using POST Newspapers’ new facility.4
North Coast Times5 officially launched on 22 February 2026, following a soft launch beginning in December 2025 and content backfilled from October 2025. The title is the second digital publication from Kore Communications, which also operates the New England Times.
The NC Times’ coverage area in PIPI is slightly smaller than what is listed on its website. In order to list a coverage area, PIPI requires a minimum average of one story per month over the preceding 12 months. A full year is not yet available, but from the October date it has already met the minimum story threshold in Ballina, Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour and is on track in Bellingen, Byron, Kempsey, Kyogle, Lismore, Mid-Coast, Port Macquarie-Hastings, Richmond Valley and Tweed. In only one area, Nambucca Valley, is it not currently on track to reach the requirement. I will review this again in Q2 and update if this changes.
Central Coast Daily News was added to PIPI in Q4/25 as an inactive outlet as it hadn’t published an article in a few months by that point. In February it returned to activity, publishing 15 stories across the month. As such its status in the database has been changed from ‘Inactive’ to ‘Open’.
Business News Australia founder Camilla Westerlund announced on LinkedIn that the company was entering liquidation in January 2026.6
The Hervey Bay Advertiser closed in January 2026. Publisher Malcolm Quinn wrote in the final edition that the cost of printing the publication and the continued loss of advertising revenue led to the decision. “While the newspaper could continue in a reduced form, that outcome would not reflect what The Hervey Bay Advertiser has stood for, nor the expectations of its readers and advertisers”, he wrote.7
Sunbury Life closed on 15 January, publisher Steve Hart confirmed in an email. The title launched in January 2023 to cover the suburb of western Melbourne.
A merger between Southern Cross Austereo and Seven West Media completed on 7 January.8 Southern Cross Media Group Limited is now listed as the parent entity of Seven West Media, which itself is the parent of West Australian Newspapers Limited and Community Newspaper Group Limited, the publishers of The West Australian, The Nightly and network of West Australian suburban and regional newspapers.
The Bulli & Clifton Times announced its closure on 2 January after covering the towns in the Wollongong area since 2014. The title was not in the database but has been added, alongside its subsequent closure.9
The Narromine Star10 returned to activity in January 2026 with the launch of a new website. A joint venture between Gilgandra Newspapers and Dubbo Photo News publisher Panscott Media, it suspended activity after ending its print edition in August 2025.
South West Local News launched on 1 January as a new website for the existing Fitz Media digital video news service in South West Victoria.11
Other data changes
The following are changes that were made to the data but which did not occur during the reporting period. These can be corrections to data, or market changes that occurred during a previous quarter but which were not captured at the time.
Dates listed as ’31/12/18′ reflect that the change occurred prior to the start of data capture on 1 January 2019, not that it occurred on that particular date.
| Date | Outlet | State | Change |
| 18/12/25 | Coonabarabran Times | NSW | Outlet closed |
| 18/09/25 | Wet Tropic Times | QLD | Outlet closed |
| 17/07/25 | Wollondilly Express | NSW | Outlet closed |
| 23/05/25 | Goulburn Express | NSW | Outlet closed |
| 03/07/25 | Bass Coast Post | VIC | Change of ownership |
| 01/10/24 | The Courier (Narrabri) | NSW | Change of ownership |
| 01/10/24 | Gunnedah Times | NSW | Change of ownership |
| 01/10/24 | Wee Waa News | NSW | Change of ownership |
| 17/12/20 | Goulburn Express | NSW | Outlet opened |
| 22/11/20 | Hume Leader | VIC | Outlet closed |
| 04/11/20 | Wollondilly Express | NSW | Outlet opened |
| 29/06/20 | Rouse Hill Times | NSW | Outlet closed |
| 31/12/18 | Daily Liberal | NSW | Reduced coverage area |
| 31/12/18 | Geelong Advertiser | VIC | Increased coverage area |
| 31/12/18 | Nepean News | NSW | Added to database |
| 31/12/18 | Riverine Grazier* | NSW | Reduced coverage area |
Coonabarabran Times published its final edition in December 2025.12
Last quarter I assessed that the Wet Tropic Times had suspended publication following the end of its print and digital print editions. At time of finalising the data in mid-March 2026, it has not reopened and I have marked it closed, backdated to its final digital print edition in September 2025.
The Goulburn Express and Wollondilly Express were newspapers published by Espresso Media which closed in 2025. The company’s flagship outlet, the Southern Highlands Express, has been in the data since it launched, but I was not aware of these two print-only titles until news reports on the company’s liquidation in December 2025.13 Both the opening and closing of each of these two titles have been added to the data.
The Bass Coast Post,14 an online magazine in Victoria, operated for a number of years as a volunteer effort without having a registered business entity behind it. In July 2025, long-time publisher and editor Catherine Watson registered an ABN and the business name.15 This is recorded as a ‘Change of ownership’ in the data despite not meaningfully being a ‘change’.
In October 2024 the Narrabri Courier, Gunnedah Times and Wee Waa News were acquired by Collective Media from long-time publisher the North Western Courier.16 This change of ownership is now reflected in the data.
The Hume Leader was consolidated with the Sunbury Leader and Moonee Valley Leader into Leader (North West) in 2020 but was incorrectly listed as still operating independently. This has been fixed. Similarly, the Rouse Hill Times was among those News Corp titles announced as closed in 202017 and was incorrectly listed as still operating in PIPI. This has been fixed.
On reviewing the Daily Liberal I found that it does not meet the minimum coverage threshold of an average of one story per month over the preceding year in Brewarrina, Bourke, Cobar and Warren shires. These have been removed from its coverage area.
On reviewing the Geelong Advertiser I found that it very consistently covers the Queenscliffe and Surf Coast local government areas. These have been added to its coverage area.
Nepean News,18 a longstanding weekly news magazine covering Penrith and Blacktown in Sydney’s western suburbs, has been added to the database.
On reviewing the Western Sydney Express I found that it does not meet the minimum coverage threshold in Cumberland Council. This has been removed from its area.
On reviewing the Riverine Grazier I found that it does not meet the minimum coverage threshold in Central Darling Shire and continues to be below the threshold in Carrathool Shire. The former has been removed from its coverage area.
News Corp local titles
A large number of changes this month are to News Corp’s local titles. These changes have been made to standardise the structure of this part of the data across the company’s different metropolitan outlet groups and to set up potential further changes in the future.
There is a lot of variation among News Corp’s titles that has always been difficult to accommodate within PIPI and, preceding it, the ANDP. This data has been in largely the same format since it was collected and represents a 2019-2020 perspective of this ecosystem: there are capital city metropolitan daily newspapers, a network of affiliated but editorially independent newspapers in the suburbs, and regional papers across Queensland and New South Wales in particular.
These assumptions don’t hold in 2026. This is particularly true for the suburban titles, which have different levels of prominence, editorial independence, and branding between them but, with a few exceptions, have become more integrated into the capital city newsrooms over time. If the data was starting clean this year then I don’t imagine that many of these outlets would meet the criteria as sufficiently independent to be separately listed.
To take one example, the Parramatta Advertiser was a bi-weekly newspaper launched in 1933 by the Cumberland Newspaper Group. At the start of the data period (1 January 2019) it was within News Corp’s Newslocal group of community newspapers in Sydney, sharing resources with the Daily Telegraph but produced and distributed independently from it. At some point prior to 2019 its website began redirecting to a ‘Parramatta Advertiser’ section on the Telegraph’s site. In April 2020, in response to COVID-19, News Corp suspended the printed edition, a change that was made permanent in June 2020.19 At a later point – I believe in 2021, though I have not been able to verify this – the ‘Parramatta Advertiser’ branding was removed from the website section, which now labelled geographically as ‘Parramatta’. In 2023, all Newslocal titles were moved inside the editorial processes of the Telegraph.20 21
Looking at it from 2026, the Parramatta Advertiser does not meaningfully exist; at some point since 2019 it has been wholly subsumed into the Daily Telegraph.
This is one of the cleaner examples, and there are variations in timing and detail among others. The Canberra Star had a similar journey except that it was only founded in 2019 as a digital publication and was never meaningfully produced independently from the Telegraph. The Newcastle News, on the other hand, is a digital title that operates with a higher degree of autonomy. The Northern District Times was a Cumberland Newspaper Group weekly newspaper that has become a digital section on the Daily Telegraph site, much like the Parramatta Advertiser, but at time of writing it retains its branding on the website.
These slight variations repeat across Queensland, while the Victorian and South Australian titles appear to suggest the direction of travel: an overarching local news brand (Leader) and consolidated geographic regions (Outer East) without separately-branded mastheads inside them (no more Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader).
My goals in Q1 were threefold:
- To achieve a consistent structure for News Corp’s local titles across New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria;
- To reflect the current branding of News Corp’s local titles according to their primary product, whether that is on a website or, in a few remaining cases, in print; and
- For the structure to be adaptable in the event that after a future review or further consultation I determine that the local titles are insufficiently distinct as products and should be removed.
To achieve this I have adjusted the data structure of other states and territories to align with the approach in Victoria, where the goals were already being met. I have followed the following process:
- Outlets that continue as a print newspaper are unchanged.
- For example, the Wentworth Courier remains a separate, open outlet despite being part of the Newslocal group, as it has a printed edition as its primary product.
- Outlets that were a local newspaper until 2020 and that have since been subsumed into the city paper’s website but retain their graphic masthead are unchanged.
- This group is regional papers in Queensland and New South Wales that, despite not being in print, retain a greater degree of autonomy from the city papers.
- For example, Ballina Shire Advocate.
- This group is regional papers in Queensland and New South Wales that, despite not being in print, retain a greater degree of autonomy from the city papers.
- Outlets that were a local newspaper until 2020 and that have since been subsumed into the city paper’s website and have lost their graphic masthead have been marked as ‘Closed’.
- This group is overwhelmingly former suburban papers across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
- For example, the Parramatta Advertiser is now listed closed in the data.
- This group is overwhelmingly former suburban papers across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
- Outlets that were launched as digital products inside the city paper continue as the same record with a new name.
- This group includes both digital outlets launched prior to 2020, such as the Canberra Star, and those that were part of News Corp’s later push into new regions, such as The Dubbo News.
- For example, the Canberra Star launched in 2019. It has been renamed Newslocal (Canberra) to reflect its web branding.
- This approach was taken as these outlets never had an independent identity outside of the city papers, unlike the former suburban and regional local titles.
- This group includes both digital outlets launched prior to 2020, such as the Canberra Star, and those that were part of News Corp’s later push into new regions, such as The Dubbo News.
- New digital outlet records have been created to represent the part of the city paper’s website that now provides local coverage for that area.
- In Queensland, Victoria and South Australia these outlets tend to reflect consolidated geographic regions and are created by the merger of multiple previous local newspapers.
- For example, Quest News (Moreton) is the digital outlet record covering the consolidated area of the closed newspapers the Caboolture Herald, Redcliffe & Bayside Herald, and Pine Rivers Press.
- In Tasmania and the Northern Territory these digital outlets are generally not linked to a closed newspaper.
- NT News (Palmerston and Beyond) is not reflective of a former title. The exception in this group is the Centralian Advocate, a closed newspaper now replaced by NT News (Alice Springs).
- In New South Wales these are still 1:1 with the areas of the former newspapers.
- Newslocal (Parramatta) is the new digital outlet record for the area formerly covered by the Parramatta Advertiser.
- In some cases, this new digital outlet retains the name (but not the masthead) of a former paper. Quest News (North Lakes Times), for example.
- In Queensland, Victoria and South Australia these outlets tend to reflect consolidated geographic regions and are created by the merger of multiple previous local newspapers.
This approach creates a clear distinction in the data between the titles that existed as independent local newspapers, and the digital outlets that have only ever been part of the city paper structure. It makes the branding of these digital outlets consistent and reflects the audience experience when accessing the website. It provides a consistent template to apply if there are other changes among these outlets going forward.
That clear distinction between print and digital means that if in the future I determine that the local news sections are simply part of the city papers and not eligible to be listed, the historic newspapers already exist in the data as separate objects and it will be these new digital outlet records that are removed. The structure allows for that decision to be made, but is not a temporary measure in anticipation of it.
I should also acknowledge that in addition to its websites, News Corp runs a large number of Facebook pages that reflect historic branding even where those titles are long closed.
PIPI operates at a level of consolidation, bundling distribution channels together (for example, the Herald Sun’s newspaper, digital print edition, website, newsletter, podcasts, etc.) into a single record (‘Herald Sun’), rather than having each channel as a distinct record (as is the approach in the ACMA’s Media Diversity Measurement Framework).22 This approach requires privileging one channel above others as the primary product to resolve differences between them; this tends to be the printed product (for print format outlets) or the website (for digital format outlets).
What this means is that, although there continues to be an active Facebook page called the Frankston Standard Leader,23 that outlet is in PIPI as Leader (Inner South), as this is the way it is presented on its primary product (the website).24
Below I’ll list both the outlets that are open and those that have been closed in this quarter, as well as a note describing the change. In the notes column the following terms are used:
- Renamed indicates that the named record is the same outlet record with a new name. ‘Newslocal (Albury Wodonga)’ is the new name in the data for the record previously called ‘The Albury Wodonga News’
- Replaced indicates that the named record is a new outlet record that replaces one or more previous outlet record(s). ‘Newslocal (Blacktown Advocate)’ is a new record that assumes the role of the previous ‘Blacktown Advocate’ record.
- Replaced by is the inverse, it indicates that the named record has been replaced by a new outlet record. ‘Blacktown Advocate’ has been replaced by the new record ‘Newslocal (Blacktown Advocate)’.
- Where a record replaces or is replaced by another record, the ID of that record is also provided.
For completeness, I have also included other News Corp local outlets that are open and that have not changed.
New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory
Active outlets
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 865 | The Bowral News25 | No change |
| 183 | The Coffs Coast Advocate | No change |
| 187 | The Daily Examiner | No change |
| 113 | Manly Daily | No change |
| 124 | Mosman Daily | No change |
| 834 | Newslocal (Albury Wodonga) | Renamed The Albury Wodonga News |
| 1072 | Newslocal (Blacktown Advocate) | Replaced Blacktown Advocate (ID:23) |
| 757 | Newslocal (Blue Mountains) | Renamed The Blue Mountains News |
| 3 | Newslocal (Canberra) | Renamed Canberra Star |
| 1073 | Newslocal (Central Coast) | Replaced the Central Coast Express Advocate (ID:40) |
| 42 | Newslocal (Central Sydney) | Renamed Central Sydney |
| 829 | Newslocal (Dubbo) | Renamed The Dubbo News |
| 1074 | Newslocal (The Express) | Replaced the Canterbury-Bankstown Express (ID: 37) |
| 1075 | Newslocal (Fairfield Advance) | Replaced Fairfield Advance (ID: 68) |
| 1076 | Newslocal (Hills Shire Times) | Replaced Hills Shire Times (ID: 90) |
| 1077 | Newslocal (Hornsby Advocate) | Replaced Hornsby Advocate (ID: 94) |
| 97 | Newslocal (Illawarra Star) | Renamed Illawarra Star |
| 1078 | Newslocal (Inner West) | Replaced Inner West Courier (ID: 99) |
| 1079 | Newslocal (Liverpool Leader) | Replaced Liverpool Leader (ID: 108) |
| 1080 | Newslocal (Macarthur) | Replaced Macarthur Chronicle (ID: 109) |
| 834 | Newslocal (Mid North Coast) | Renamed The Mid North Coast News |
| 755 | Newslocal (The Newcastle News) | Renamed The Newcastle News |
| 1081 | Newslocal (Northern District Times) | Replaced Northern District Times (ID: 138) |
| 1082 | Newslocal (Parramatta) | Replaced Parramatta Advertiser (ID: 146) |
| 1083 | Newslocal (Penrith Press) | Replaced Penrith Press (ID: 149) |
| 766 | Newslocal (The South Coast News) | Renamed The South Coast News |
| 1084 | Newslocal (Southern Courier) | Replaced Southern Courier (ID: 163) |
| 169 | Newslocal (St George Shire) | Renamed St George Shire Standard |
| 760 | Newslocal (Wagga) | Renamed The Wagga News |
| 136 | North Shore Times | No change |
| 204 | The Northern Star | No change |
| 222 | Tweed Daily News | No change |
| 233 | Wentworth Courier | No change |
Listed as closed in Q1/26
The Rouse Hill Times was closed in 2020 and was incorrectly listed as open. This has been fixed.
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 23 | Blacktown Advocate | Replaced by Newslocal (Blacktown Advocate) (ID: 1072) |
| 37 | Canterbury Bankstown Express | Replaced by Newslocal (The Express) (ID: 1074) |
| 40 | Central Coast Express Advocate | Replaced by Newslocal (Central Coast) (ID: 1073) |
| 68 | Fairfield Advocate | Replaced by Newslocal (Fairfield Advocate) (ID: 1075) |
| 90 | Hills Shire Times | Replaced by Newslocal (Hills Shire Times) (ID: 1076) |
| 94 | Hornsby Advocate | Replaced by Newslocal (Hornsby Advocate) (ID: 1077) |
| 99 | Inner West Courier | Replaced by Newslocal (Inner West) (ID: 1078) |
| 108 | Liverpool Leader | Replaced by Newslocal (Liverpool Leader) (ID: 1079) |
| 109 | Macarthur Chronicle | Replaced by Newslocal (Macarthur) (ID: 1080) |
| 138 | Northern District Times | Replaced by Newslocal (Northern District Times) (ID: 1081) |
| 146 | Parramatta Advertiser | Replaced by Newslocal (Parramatta) (ID: 1082) |
| 149 | Penrith Press | Replaced by Newslocal (Penrith Press) (ID: 1083) |
| 157 | Rouse Hill Times | Outlet closed in 2020. |
| 163 | Southern Courier | Replaced by Newslocal (Southern Courier) (ID: 1084) |
Queensland
Active outlets
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 259 | Cairns Post | No change |
| 266 | Central & North Burnett Times | No change |
| 269 | Chinchilla News and Murilla Advertiser | No change |
| 339 | The Chronicle | No change |
| 277 | CQ News | No change |
| 278 | Daily Mercury | No change |
| 279 | Dalby Herald | No change |
| 281 | Fraser Coast Chronicle | No change |
| 282 | Gatton, Lockyer & Brisbane Valley Star | No change |
| 284 | Gold Coast Bulletin | No change |
| 347 | The Gympie Times | No change |
| 352 | The Morning Bulletin | No change |
| 307 | News Mail | No change |
| 309 | Noosa News | No change |
| 353 | The Observer | No change |
| 321 | Queensland Times | No change |
| 1063 | Quest News (Brisbane City) | Replaced City North News (ID: 270), City South News (ID: 271) |
| 1064 | Quest News (Logan) | Replaced Albert & Logan News (ID: 248) |
| 1065 | Quest News (Moreton) | Replaced Caboolture Herald (ID: 548), Redcliffe & Bayside Herald (ID: 323), Pine Rivers Press (ID: 318) |
| 1066 | Quest News (North) | Replaced Northside Chronicle (ID: 315) |
| 1067 | Quest News (North Lakes Times) | Replaced North Lakes Times (ID: 311) |
| 1068 | Quest News (Redlands) | Replaced Redlands Community News (ID: 325) |
| 1069 | Quest News (Southeast) | Replaced South East Advertiser (ID: 329), Wynnum Herald (ID: 369) |
| 1070 | Quest News (Southwest) | Replaced Westside News (ID: 365), South West Satellite (ID: 328), Southern Star (ID: 331), South West News (ID: 330) |
| 1071 | Quest News (Springfield News) | Replaced Springfield News (ID: 1062) |
| 327 | South Burnett Times | No change |
| 332 | Stanthorpe Border Post | No change |
| 333 | Sunshine Coast Daily | No change |
| 357 | Townsville Bulletin | No change |
| 362 | Warwick Daily News | No change |
| 356 | The Western Star | No change |
| 364 | Western Times | No change |
| 368 | Whitsunday Times | No change |
Listed as closed in Q1/26
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 248 | Albert & Logan News | Replaced by Quest News (Logan) (ID: 1064) |
| 258 | Caboolture Herald | Replaced by Quest News (Moreton) (ID: 1065) |
| 270 | City North News | Replaced by Quest News (Brisbane City) (ID: 1063) |
| 271 | City South News | Replaced by Quest News (Brisbane City) (ID: 1063) |
| 311 | North Lakes Times | Replaced by Quest News (North Lakes Times) (ID: 1067) |
| 315 | Northern Chronicle | Replaced by Quest News (North) (ID: 1066) |
| 318 | Pine Rivers Press | Replaced by Quest News (Moreton) (ID: 1065) |
| 323 | Redcliffe & Bayside Herald | Replaced by Quest News (Moreton) (ID: 1065) |
| 325 | Redlands Community News | Replaced by Quest News (Redlands) (ID: 1068) |
| 328 | South West Satellite | Replaced by Quest News (Southwest) (ID: 1070) |
| 329 | South East Advertiser | Replaced by Quest News (Southeast) (ID: 1069) |
| 330 | South West News | Replaced by Quest News (Southwest) (ID: 1070) |
| 331 | Southern Star | Replaced by Quest News (Southwest) (ID: 1070) |
| 1062 | Springfield News26 | Replaced by Quest News (Springfield News) (ID: 1071) |
| 365 | Westside News | Replaced by Quest News (Southwest) (ID: 1070) |
| 369 | Wynnum Herald | Replaced by Quest News (Southeast) (ID: 1069) |
South Australia
Messenger titles in South Australia had already been consolidated into regional groups as of the start of the data (1 January 2019) so there are far fewer changes to record. I did, however, remove the ‘The’ – it’s cleaner.
Active outlets
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 764 | Messenger (Adelaide Hills & Murraylands) | Renamed The Adelaide Hills & Murraylands News |
| 762 | Messenger (Barossa, Clare & Gawler) | Renamed The Barossa, Clare & Gawler News |
| 396 | Messenger (The City) | Renamed The Messenger (The City) |
| 393 | Messenger (East, Inner Suburbs & Hills) | Renamed The Messenger (East, Inner Suburbs & Hills) |
| 398 | Messenger (Mount Gambier) | Renamed The Mount Gambier News |
| 394 | Messenger (North & Northeast) | Renamed The Messenger (North & Northeast) |
| 812 | Messenger (Port Lincoln) | Renamed The Port Lincoln News |
| 395 | Messenger (South) | Renamed The Messenger (South) |
| 758 | Messenger (Upper Spencer Gulf) | Renamed The Upper Spencer Gulf News |
| 397 | Messenger (West & Beaches) | Renamed The Messenger (West & Beaches) |
Tasmania and the Northern Territory
Hobart and Darwin have daily papers (The Mercury and the NT News) but don’t have existing local news brands in the same way as other states and have been expanding their local coverage in recent years. With these titles I have done the following:
- Both newspapers have long been listed as ‘Local’ scale, rather than ‘Metropolitan’ like in other cities, after a 2021 assessment that they were not operating with a mix of national, state and local in the same way. This has been updated and both are now ‘Metropolitan’ scale titles, and their coverage areas have been adjusted to reflect only the city’s urban area.
- With no distinct local brand I have adopted the names of the mastheads instead, so for example ‘The Launceston News’, a digital local news brand launched in 2019, becomes ‘The Mercury (Launceston)’.
- This has resulted in three new local outlets in Tasmania and one in the Northern Territory.
- One further outlet, NT News (Alice Springs), I have created in the lineage of the Centralian Advocate, a standalone paper which was merged into the NT News in 2020 and lost its independent branding after a website refresh in 2021 and had been listed as closed.
- In the absence of better information,27 I have used this 2021 refresh as the starting point for these new local outlets as well.
Active outlets
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 1059 | The Mercury (East Coast) | New outlet |
| 1061 | The Mercury (Hobart & South) | New outlet |
| 751 | The Mercury (Launceston) | Renamed The Launceston News |
| 816 | The Mercury (North West) | Renamed The North West Coast News |
| 1060 | The Mercury (West Coast) | New outlet |
| 1085 | NT News (Alice Springs) | Replaced Centralian Advocate (ID: 244) |
| 1058 | NT News (Palmerston and Beyond) | New outlet |
Listed as closed in Q1/26
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 244 | Centralian Advocate | Replaced by NT News (Alice Springs) (ID: 1085) |
Victoria
Leader titles in Victoria were already recorded against regional groups; as such, most changes to records in Q1/26 were to outlet names. Nevertheless I have provided the detail about these previous quarter changes in the notes.
Active outlets
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 495 | Geelong Advertiser | No change. |
| 818 | Leader (Ballarat) | Renamed The Ballarat News |
| 830 | Leader (Bass Coast) | Renamed The Bass Coast News |
| 868 | Leader (Bendigo) | Renamed The Bendigo News |
| 850 | Leader (East) | No change. Incorporates Heidelberg Leader (ID: 503), Manningham Leader (ID: 520), Whitehorse Leader (ID: 634) |
| 838 | Leader (Goulburn Valley) | Renamed The Goulburn Valley News |
| 851 | Leader (Inner East) | No change. Incorporates Progress Leader (ID: 564), Stonnington Leader (ID: 582) |
| 852 | Leader (Inner South) | No change. Incorporates Bayside Leader (ID: 444), Frankston Standard (ID: 491), Mordialloc Chelsea Leader (ID: 535), Mornington Peninsula Leader (ID: 538) |
| 832 | Leader (Melbourne City) | Renamed The Melbourne City News |
| 828 | Leader (Mildura) | Renamed The Mildura News |
| 853 | Leader (North) | No change. Incorporates Diamond Valley Leader (ID: 478), Hume Leader (ID: 507), Northcote Leader (ID: 551), Preston Leader (ID: 563), Whittlesea Leader (ID: 634) |
| 856 | Leader (North West) | No change. Incorporates Moonee Valley Leader (ID: 533), Moreland Leader (ID: 536), Northern Leader (ID: 553), Sunbury & Macedon Leader (ID: 586) |
| 857 | Leader (Outer East) | No change. Incorporates Knox Leader (ID: 508), Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader (ID: 516), Maroondah Leader (ID: 524) |
| 858 | Leader (South East) | No change. Incorporates Cranbourne Leader (ID: 473), Greater Dandenong Leader (ID: 501), Moorabbin Kingston Leader (ID: 534) |
| 883 | Leader (Warrnambool) | Renamed The Warrnambool News |
| 859 | Leader (West) | Renamed Leader West. Incorporates Maribyrnong Leader (ID: 523), Wyndham Leader (ID: 752) |
Listed as closed in Q1/26
The Hume Leader was incorrectly listed as still open despite having been consolidated into Leader (North), this has been fixed.
The Macedon Ranges Leader was incorrectly listed despite having been consolidated into the Sunbury & Macedon Leader prior to the start of the data. It has been removed from the database and the closed Sunbury Leader record has been updated to reflect this merger.
| ID | Outlet | Notes |
| 507 | Hume Leader | Closed November 2022. |
| 519 | Macedon Ranges Leader | Removed from the database |
| 586 | Sunbury & Macedon Leader | Renamed Sunbury Leader, increased coverage area |
Other events
The Washington Post closed its Sydney bureau in February.28 The opening of this bureau in 2021 was recorded in the Australian News Data Project, but was not reflected in PIPI, as on reassessment I was not convinced that it was writing to engage Australians in public debate. As such, this event has not been recorded.
Two groups of changes involving LINA members were identified after the independent review process for the quarter had been completed. These will be assessed for the next quarterly update:
- News of the Midlands was launched by the New Norfolk and Derwent Valley Gazette publisher Damian Bester in March 2026.
- MyCity Media has titles in Yarrabilba, Beenleigh and Springwood under its ‘Suburban Life’ brand that are not currently in the data.
| Community | Local | Metro | State | National | Total | |
| 86 | 440 | 9 | 1 | 13 | 549 | |
| Digital | 9 | 149 | 5 | 0 | 25 | 188 |
| Total | 95 | 589 | 14 | 1 | 38 | 737 |
Footnotes
- For transparency, the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Star joined LINA after I had updated the data to reflect its reopening. ↩︎
- Hervey Bay Sun. https://sunnews.com.au/ ↩︎
- Lynch J., Bold S. and McManus S. 2023. Media jobs on the line as ACM announces closure of four regional WA newspapers. ABC News. 28 March. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-28/acm-announces-closure-of-four-regional-wa-mastheads/102071302 ↩︎
- Coleman P. 2025. Locals back Post’s bold route out of a print ‘monopoly’. GXPress. 26 May. https://www.gxpress.net/article/8649/locals-back-posts-bold-route-out-of-a-print-monopoly ↩︎
- North Coast Times. https://nctimes.com.au/ ↩︎
- Westerlund C. 2026. Today Business News Australia will enter liquidation. LinkedIn Post. 22 January. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7419904040593092608/ ↩︎
- Quinn M. 2026. Hervey Bay Advertiser to cease publication, citing rising costs and commitment to quality. Hervey Bay Advertiser. 22 January. https://www.herveybayadvertiser.com.au/hervey-bay-advertiser-22-j/ ↩︎
- Implementation of Scheme of Arrangement. ASX Statement. 7 January 2026. https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-03044075-6A1306253&v=undefined ↩︎
- Roberts M. 2026. Farewell to The Bulli & Clifton Times: A writer’s journey. Bulli & Clifton Times. 2 January. https://thebullitimes.com/2026/01/02/farewell-to-the-bulli-clifton-times-a-writers-journey/ ↩︎
- Narromine Star. https://www.narrominestar.com.au/ ↩︎
- South West Local News. https://southwestlocalnews.com.au/ ↩︎
- Coonabarabran Times. 2025. Our last paper…ever. Coonabarabran Times. Facebook post. 18 December. https://www.facebook.com/CoonabarabranTimes/posts/pfbid0yPEq4p4jEMhVAT15kbGprZLY4ZXDDof7LWqsmVRVQL4aTAaB8wwg6rXhwsMn3avEl ↩︎
- Dickinson E. 2025. Southern Highlands Express owner folded with $700k debt. Mumbrella. 23 December. https://mumbrella.com.au/southern-highlands-express-owner-folded-with-700k-debt-910937 ↩︎
- Bass Coast Post. https://www.basscoastpost.com/ ↩︎
- Watson, Catherine Jane. https://abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View?abn=21493987362 ↩︎
- The Courier. 2024. The Courier changes hands after 104 years of family’s ownership. The Courier. 26 September. https://narrabricourier.com.au/2024/09/26/the-courier-changes-hands-after-104-years-of-familys-ownership/ ↩︎
- ABC News. 2020. News Corp cuts: will your local newspaper be affected? 28 May. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-28/news-corp-cuts-is-your-local-paper-affected/12295320 ↩︎
- Nepean News. https://nepeannews.com.au/ ↩︎
- Pitt H. 2020. ‘From typesetter to tea lady’: end of a Murdoch newspaper era in Sydney. Sydney Morning Herald. 29 May. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/from-typesetter-to-tea-lady-end-of-a-murdoch-newspaper-era-in-sydney-20200528-p54xbo.html ↩︎
- Buckingham-Jones S. 2023. News Corp tests Daily Telegraph, regional news arm merger. Australian Financial Review. 19 March. https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/news-corp-tests-daily-telegraph-regional-news-arm-merger-20230317-p5ct13 ↩︎
- To be clear, this makes sense to me. Once the suburban papers were not separate products from the city title, an editorial structure that sat alongside the rest of the paper rather than as part of it was unnecessary duplication. I have heard stories of city paper journalists arriving at an incident only to find a suburban paper colleague with a different reporting line already standing there – a complete waste of resources. ↩︎
- Australian Communications and Media Authority. 2025. Media Diversity Measurement Framework. https://www.acma.gov.au/media-diversity-measurement-framework ↩︎
- Frankston Standard Leader. Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/FrankstonLeader/ ↩︎
- Leader (Inner South). https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-south ↩︎
- Despite being a digital local title, The Bowral News has a graphic masthead and so has not been updated to conform to the new approach. ↩︎
- Springfield News was also created this month as no record for this title existed. ↩︎
- Where I need to identify changes on websites and can’t get confirmation from an editor I will typically use the Wayback Machine. Unfortunately News Corp’s websites have an anti-web-crawler deployed and are not archived by the service. ↩︎
- ABC News. 2026. ‘Bloodbath’ at Washington Post as massive layoffs announced. ABC News. 5 February. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-05/washington-post-layoffs/106307024 ↩︎