Horsham Times, Ararat Advertiser to print final editions before mergers

Two western Victorian newspapers will print their final editions tomorrow before merging with rival papers in a bid to secure their financial survival.

The Ararat Advertiser, which has served the town since 1857, will print its final paper tomorrow before merging with the locally-owned Ararat Advocate.

The merger will leave the town of 11,880 with one local newspaper, known as the Ararat Advocate-Ararat Advertiser.

The Horsham Times will also print its last edition tomorrow before merging with the 151-year-old Wimmera Mail Times — taking the number of local papers in Horsham from three to two.

The news comes in the wake of two local publishers purchasing the Wimmera Mail Times, the Stawell Times and the Ararat Advertiser mastheads from media giant Australian Community Media in January.

The Stawell Times will continue publishing as normal.

Coverage 'guarantee'

ACM's sale of the three papers comes amid news the company's remaining print editions will be cut back to weekly publications.

All nine staff from the Ararat Advertiser, the Horsham Times and the Stawell Times will keep their jobs in the takeovers.

West Vic News publisher Craig Wilson, who is merging the two Ararat papers, said securing the future of local journalism was key.

"It has been a good arrangement, in the sense that everybody has a future with the business — we aren't coming in getting rid of people in a wholesale way," he said.

Mr Wilson said the deal would bolster the Ararat media offering, producing a "bigger" weekly paper with increased advertising to keep the business afloat.

"If you don't have the money to run the business, you can't put the resources in to employ people to actually go and cover stories and take photos and man the desk at the office and things like that," he said.

Wimmera Mallee News publisher David Ward, who is merging the Horsham Times into the Wimmera Mail Times masthead, said it was an important step for news in the region.

The newly merged publication will print twice a week, down from its current schedule of three times per week.

"There's a lot of history there because the Horsham Times was owned by the [Ward] family back in the 1890s, I believe — and my son Andrew, who's our general manager, is fifth generation in the newspaper game," Mr Ward said.

Still a future for papers

Deakin University School of Communication and Creative Arts professor Kristy Hess said regional newspapers were looking for new solutions to stay viable, and mergers were an example of that.

"There is space in the market for one key newspaper [in Horsham] and if you can make that stronger as result of merging the Horsham Times [with] the Wimmera Mail Times, I don't think that is a bad decision," she said.

Professor Hess said there was still a strong demand for printed newspapers in regional areas, despite a downturn in the industry more broadly.

"People like the feel of a paper … they like to sit down and have that connection to everything from sport to what's happening at council," she said.

In 2024, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance reported more than 220 regional and community newspapers had stopped printing or closed completely over the past decade.