MILLICENT’S South Eastern Times and Penola’s Pennant newspapers will be relaunched later this month as part of The Border Watch stable.
Made possible by a grant awarded this week by the Facebook (Meta) News Fund, which is administered by the Walkley Foundation, the relaunched South Eastern Times and Penola Pennant will be published every Thursday with the first editions on March 31.
Managing Editor of The Border Watch, Peter Gandolfi thanked Facebook (Meta) and the Walkley Foundation for enabling the return of the local newspapers.
“The Millicent and Penola newspapers have a long history in both townships and provided local news and documented the region for many years,” Mr Gandolfi said.
“It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to be a part of bringing these important mastheads back to their local communities so that they can resume their role in delivering grass-roots news, advocating for them and recording for history the events of these towns and surrounding areas for many years to come.”
Both Mr Gandolfi and his wife Kathy began their careers in newspapers at the South Eastern Times in the 1980s with Peter photographing sport and Kathy undertaking her journalism cadetship at the paper under the supervision of then editor, the late Bob Chewings.
With The South Eastern Times and The Penola Pennant covering the area of the Wattle Range Council, Mayor Des Noll said the return of the newspapers displayed confidence by a local business in the community.
“Local people have wanted to get back to the SE Times, they have wanted to get back to the Penola Pennant; I know the community will be enthusiastic in supporting this as the towns will get their own voice again,” Mr Noll said.
“It’s a real confidence booster for the community that a local business is confident enough in Millicent and Penola to invest and expand to support our community.
“Throughout the Wattle Range Council area, local businesses have been investing in the community’s future and this is a part of that.
“It is a positive for the continued economic growth of these communities which have been expanding with new people coming here.
“I have had a long association with the local paper since I moved here in 1986; it’s been a part of my journey in Millicent.
“Over that time the paper employed local people and it will continue to do so,” he said.
“There is nothing more refreshing than sitting down and reading both the SE Times and the Penola Pennant to keep connected.”
After being closed by the former owners of The Border Watch in August 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the newspapers were purchased by TBW Today Pty Ltd, which includes Peter and Kathy Gandolfi among its owners, and The Border Watch was relaunched in October 2020 after being closed for two months.
Since then The Border Watch has incorporated The South Eastern Times and The Penola Pennant with one page devoted to each in its weekly publication.
Relaunching the individual papers will revive a history which began in 1891 for The South Eastern Times and 1946 for The Penola Pennant.
They will be joined by four other newspapers around Australia which will be relaunched as part of the first round of the Facebook (Meta) News Fund grants which handed out a total of $5 million shared by 54 news organisations and independent journalists across Australia.
The Walkley Foundation, which administers the fund, said regional journalism was in a well-documented state of flux and was facing unprecedented funding challenges, which the Covid-19 pandemic had magnified.
More than 227 print or digital news mastheads had either closed or reduced services since January 2019, according to the Public Interest Journalism Initiative’s Australian Newsroom Mapping Project.
Some 155 of these were the result of a contraction in a rural or regional area.
As a result, 33 local government areas, or six per cent of Australia’s total municipalities, were without a local print or digital news outlet.
Chief Executive Officer of the Walkley Foundation, Shona Martyn, said the impact of the Facebook (Meta) Australian News Fund on Australian journalism would be profound.
“Money is going directly to the projects across Australia that our judges considered the most worthy during a rigorous arms-length assessment process,“ she said.
“The two judging panels were looking for real need, creativity and detailed plans that could be guaranteed to deliver.”
“As part of our investment in Australian news, we wanted to ensure that smaller, regional, rural and digital newsrooms were supported,” said Andrew Hunter, News Partnerships Lead for Meta Australia.
“Crucially for the future viability of regional public interest journalism, the funding will enable four seasoned media investors to establish or relaunch print or digital mastheads in regions where a news outlet permanently closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. “
