General News
19 July, 2024
Back when the price of a beer matched the ‘local rag’
A learned industry colleague and long serving member of country newspapers (who enjoys a quiet ale), once wryly said the cover price of the local newspaper was traditionally around the price of a small glass of beer.
We all know where the price of a beer has gone…up to around the $7 to $10 mark and the local paper still languishes around the two to three dollar level and up to four dollars with daily papers, excellent value one might say!
Yes, less than even a cup of coffee.
But with the increase of nearly 100 percent in the cost of bulk Australian made newsprint to publishers, as well as significant increases in input and labour costs, this has had a serious impact on publishers.
The fact that the cover price of the Herald, together with many other country publishers’ ‘mastheads’, has only had minor increases in a number of years, has meant that the industry has been hit with a ‘double whammy’ in production costs.
Unfortunately, this has all arrived at the same time and created significant impact on the potential viability to not only publishers such as ourselves, but also across Australia, causing the need for a cover price increase from next week.
The Warracknabeal Herald and Horsham Times cover price will increase to $3.00 from Friday the 2nd of August, while the Dimboola Banner to $2.50 and the Rainbow Argus the same from the 7th of August.
Wimmera Mallee News, manager Andrew Ward said, “unfortunately these costs have all come at once and we are unable to absorb any further cost increases, as we have for the last few years.
“Sadly, as we are starting to see inflation beginning to bite and finding it difficult to maintain the viability of our businesses, it has become necessary for this increase.”
“We work really hard to bring local, researched and vetted news to our readers and we employ quite a number of local staff to bring this to our readers. It’s not something we were wanting to do, but these increases have been forced upon us, so we hope our readers will understand and continue to support our papers within the community,” he said.
Mr Ward went on to say, “We strongly believe it’s important for a community to have a local newspaper (locally owned and printed in the Wimmera…the only one to do so) and the only way this can continue is with the loyal support of our valued readers, contributors and advertisers. We thank you for your support over the last 138 years and look forward to continue to be able to do so for many years to come…with that ongoing support!”