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''Daily Cargo News'' (DCN) is a monthly Australian
shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...
,
trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
,
transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...
and
logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...
focused magazine, published by Paragon Media. First published in 1891 as ''Daily Commercial News'', ''Daily Cargo News'' is Australia's longest running national newspaper.


History


''Daily Commercial News''

Howard Ignatius Moffat, born in Redfern, New South Wales in 1861, traveled to the United States at an early age to study American business methods. He returned to Sydney in 1887 intent on establishing a shipping newspaper, founding Shipping Newspapers Ltd under the name ''The Daily Shipping Paper'' in November 1890 with business partner Jeremiah Roberts. On Monday 13 April 1891, the first edition of ''Daily Commercial News'' (DCN) was published.. On Saturday 30 April 1892 the newspaper changed its title to ''Daily Commercial News and Shipping List''. Moffat remained the driving force behind the newspaper until ill health and failing eyesight forced his retirement in 1935. His retirement coincided with the financial crisis resulting from
The Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Like so many other businesses at the time, DCN found itself in a difficult position. The
National Bank of Australia The National Bank of Australasia was a bank based in Melbourne. It was established in 1858, and in 1982 merged with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney to form National Australia Bank. History In 1858, Alexander Gibb, a Melbourne gentlema ...
stepped in and appointed a receiver, Charles Witt. The rescue was so successful that shareholders persuaded him to remain on as chairman, which he did until his retirement in 1962. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Australian authorities sought suspension of publication of all shipping movements for fear that the information could fall into enemy hands. With the strong support of the Australian shipping industry a compromise was reached – only after a ship had sailed, returned and sailed again would its original sailing be published. This policy was revoked at the conclusion of the war. For over 50 years ''DCN'' was published at 16 Bond Street, Sydney, which had extra floors added over the decades to accommodate peak staffing levels of over 1,000 employees. In 1962 new Chairman Raymond Morris initiated a move to a new building in North Sydney. A site on the corner of Hill Plaza and Elizabeth Street was purchased from P&O for £60,000. An old building on the site was demolished and Shipnews House was erected. Marine artist John Charles Allcot created the iconic sailing ship for the building, whose port and starboard lights illuminated at night, a landmark for passers-by on the nearby Pacific Highway. By 1966 Shipping Newspapers Ltd had expanded to include subsidiaries in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
and
Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
, each with its own printing plant. The group also included The Manufacturer Publishing Company, The Commonwealth Jeweller and Watchmaker, Marchant & Co General Printers and Broadway Typesetters. Asset rich, but underperforming in share value, Shipping Newspapers Ltd became a prime target for corporate raiders. Sir Ronald Brierley purchased the company in 1969, dividing and selling its assets. Subsequently, DCN was sold to businessman
Maxwell Newton Maxwell Newton (29 April 1929 – 23 July 1990) was an Australian media publisher. He was a founding editor of ''The Australian''. He was the owner of ''Daily Commercial News'' from 1969 to 1981, publisher of the ''Melbourne Observer'' from 1971 ...
with funding from Marrickville Holdings. In 1981
Peter Isaacson Peter Stuart Isaacson, AM, DFC, AFC, DFM (31 July 1920 – 7 April 2017) was an Australian publisher and decorated military pilot. He was the owner of Peter Isaacson Publications, publisher of various trade journals and suburban newspa ...
bought the newspaper from the liquidators of Maxwell Newton. Peter Isaacson Publications was acquired by Independent News & Media's Australian media arm, Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN) in 1993, where DCN remained until purchased by Informa Plc in 1999. In total, the ''Daily Commercial News'' ran for 108 years under its original banner. During this time it occupied a unique position amongst a select group as one of only three national Australian daily newspapers alongside ''
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' and '' Australian Financial Review'' - yet with a much more tightly defined market and readership than its colleagues.


''Lloyd's List'' in Australia

Early in 1993, ''
Lloyd's List ''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...
'', one of the world's oldest daily newspapers investigated the possibility of extending its international publishing service. The proposal was to launch a weekly version of its newspaper in Australia combining ''Lloyd’s List''s traditional international coverage with an extensive coverage of national shipping events in Australia. Under the guidance of Publisher and Chief Executive
Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gove ...
Press (LLP), David Gilbertson, a joint venture was formed with a private Australian publishing company, Westonprint, of
Kiama Kiama () is a coastal town 120 kilometres south of Sydney in the Illawarra. One of the main tourist attractions is the Kiama Blowhole. Kiama features several popular surfing beaches and caravan parks, and numerous alfresco cafes and restaurants ...
on the south coast of NSW. Westonprint already provided print and distribution services for several international weekly versions of well known newspapers, including ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' and ''Scottish Daily Record''. At the time, the Australian maritime media market was dominated by the ''Daily Commercial News'' (DCN), a five-day weekly national newspaper. Following extensive local market research by LLP through Lloyd's List's Managing Director, Ian Ormes, Advertisement Director, John Quilter and Peter Attwater (Managing Editor of Westonprint) David Gilbertson authorized the decision to enter the Australian market with a weekly newspaper. The newspaper was called ''Lloyd’s List Australian Weekly'' (LLAW). It was first published on Monday, 30 August 1993. A senior journalist on ''Lloyd’s List'', Leigh Smith, was chosen to head the project as editor. He was joined by Advertising Manager, Adrian Pickstock, who had recently joined ''LLP'' in London. Initially, they set up an office in a rented home in Moverly Road in the Sydney metropolitan coastal suburb of Maroubra. There, articles were written and advertisements sold. The newspaper was in profit from the outset. The stories were transmitted back to ''Lloyd’s List'' in London where the compilation of the newspaper took place by ''Lloyd’s List'' production staff. The completed editorial pages of the newspaper were then transmitted back to Westonprint in Australia where advertisements were manually inserted and production completed before printing and distribution took place. Smith and Pickstock carried the entire editorial and advertising project for several months and when it became clear that ''LLAW'' was making headway, they were joined by their wives – but not just for comfort. Smith's wife, Clare Longley, was an accomplished journalist and joined the editorial team while Pickstock's wife Ellen, briefly joined the sales team. David Worwood, formerly features editor with ''DCN'', further strengthened the editorial team from early 1994. As deputy editor the following year he proposed ''LLAW'' establish a website including shipping schedules and news. The free website proved an immediate success - contrasting with the expensively designed electronic commerce offering from rival ''DCN'', which required subscribers to pay. Leigh Smith continued as editor of ''LLAW'' until 1995 when he returned to London to join corporate public relations with BP. He was replaced by Kevin Chinnery, then the editor of ''Lloyd’s List Maritime Asia''. Adrian Pickstock left ''LLAW'' in June 1997. In 1995, the Maroubra house was abandoned for a new office at Suite 1005, Level 10, Bondi Junction Plaza (Tower 1) in Bondi Junction which was to serve as the home of LLAW until 1999.


Merger and formation of ''Lloyd's List DCN''

1998 was a pivotal year for ''LLAW'', and as it transpired, for the ''DCN''. David Gilbertson successfully led a management buyout of LLP and the company was successfully listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
. Now cashed up, ''LLP'' made a play to acquire ''LLAW''s dominating competitor, the ''DCN''. It was a long process and complicated by the decision of LLP to merge with a London-based international conference company, IBC Conferences. This merger was completed at the end of 1998 and resulted in the creation of Informa plc. Under the Informa banner, the acquisition of the ''DCN'' was completed in March 1999 for A$10m. Announcing the purchase, Gilbertson stated ''"Daily Commercial News is a powerful and long established title in the Australian market. In combination with our weekly publication, ''Lloyd's List Australian Weekly'', the acquisition of ''DCN'' will enable Informa to offer an unrivalled information service to the Australian import and export community"''. For several weeks following, the ''DCN'' and ''LLAW'' continued to publish on their normal schedules until the newspapers were merged. On Monday 12 April 1999, the first edition of the now Lloyd's List DCN was published by an editorial, advertising, subscriptions and production team made up a staff from both the ''DCN'' and ''LLAW''. ''LLAW'' editor Kevin Chinnery edited the combined publication for a further seven years until the end of 2006 when he joined ''
Business Review Weekly ''BRW'' (formerly ''Business Review Weekly'') was an Australian business magazine published by the Fairfax Media group. The magazine was headquartered in Melbourne. It regularly compiled lists which rank corporations and individuals according to ...
'' as its weekly editor. Former ''LLDCN'' deputy editor Sandy Galbraith edited the publication until September 2007, when he moved into shipping consultancy, and was replaced by ''LLDCN'' Sydney correspondent Sam Collyer who edited the paper until July 2010 when he left to pursue a public relations career with Caltex. Jim Wilson, then the Asia-Pacific editor of shipping publication ''
Fairplay FairPlay is a digital rights management (DRM) technology developed by Apple Inc. It is built into the MP4 multimedia file format as an encrypted AAC audio layer, and was used until April 2009 by the company to protect copyrighted works sold ...
'', was recruited from Singapore and moved to Australia to become editor of ''LLDCN''. Jim edited the publication for six years, leaving for a role at '' Sydney Business Chamber'' in October 2016.


Rebrand to ''Lloyd's List Australia''

On 24 November 2011, at the 16th annual Australian Shipping & Maritime Industry Awards, publisher Peter Attwater announced that ''Lloyd's List DCN'' was to be re-branded as ''Lloyd's List Australia'' to give the publication a "clear national focus". The change was immediate, with issue 901 (24 November 2011) the first to appear under the new masthead. The paper ran as ''Lloyd's List Australia'' and published by Informa Australia for a further 6 years, until a change in regional strategy saw Informa divest their entire Australian publishing business. All of their titles, including ''Lloyd's List Australia'', were placed on the market in January 2017.


Acquisition by Paragon Media, rebrand to Daily Cargo News

In June 2017, specialist trade publisher Paragon Media completed the acquisition of ''Lloyd's List Australia''. The paper continued to run under the ''Lloyd's List Australia'' masthead for a further four months, as staff and assets were relocated from Informa's Sydney office to the Paragon Media office in Crows Nest,
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
. In October 2017 the masthead was changed to ''Daily Cargo News'', whose acronym, DCN, is a homage to the original name and heritage of the newspaper. ''Daily Cargo News'' is currently edited by David Sexton, formerly the Editor of ''Lloyd's List Australia'', Chief of its Melbourne bureau and Australian correspondent for former sister publication
Lloyd's List ''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...
. Today, ''Daily Cargo News'' operates from its Crows Nest headquarters with a bureau in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
. It remains a totally subscribed publication with a daily e-mail newswire service to several thousand readers. In July 2018, ''Daily Cargo News'' moved to a monthly magazine format.


Editorial coverage & content

When the paper was founded in 1891, Howard Moffat described the editorial policy as ''"containing latest particulars on all matters connected with shipping – imports, exports &c"''. Early editions of the newspaper contained general shipping and trade news, commercial shipping schedules, passenger shipping itineraries, insurance news, shipping casualties and ship manifests. By 1920, editorial coverage had begun to diversify beyond the maritime trade sector with the launch of the weekly "Airways News" section. In 1933 both road and rail transport were also included, expanding the coverage to the full gamut of trade and intermodal door-to-door transport. As the shift towards
containerisation Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the p ...
and purpose-built container ships gained momentum in the 1950s, publication of shipping manifests became less frequent. By 1964 manifests had been completely replaced by container unpack notifications letting owners know when their containers had cleared customs. Around the same time, the popularisation of airline travel reduced the amount of cruise vessels serving passenger routes between Australia and Europe/North America. As a result, maritime coverage slowly moved entirely towards commercial matters. The editorial focus remained largely unchanged for the next 40 years, with the addition of a digital offering in 1994 and the publication of news and vessel information online. The decline of Australian flagged commercial vessels in the 1990s and early 2000s meant that by 2005 editorial focus began to shift away from serving shipping lines themselves and instead reporting information about shipping lines to third party businesses such as logistics operators, freight forwarders, customs brokers, insurance companies, analysts and import/export departments. On 28 May 2009, after 118 years in print, vessel sailing schedules were removed from the newspaper in favour of being hosted online. The following year, airfreight and road transport were removed from the editorial policy and rail coverage was moved from the newspaper to a new stand-alone publication named ''Rail Express''. Today, ''Daily Cargo News'' primarily covers news and trends in container, liner and bulk shipping,
port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...
s,
logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...
, freighting and customs broking, supply chain & logistics,
dry bulk Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/ crude oi ...
trades, project cargo, government policy, law, regulation and shipping's impact on the environment.


Current portfolio

''Daily Cargo News''s current publishing stable includes the monthly magazine, a website, four different daily e-mail newswires, and an annual directory:


Australian Shipping & Maritime Industry Awards

The Australian Shipping & Maritime Industry Awards have been held every November since 1995. As of 2011 there are 16 award categories which recognise achievements in liner trading, freight forwarding, maritime safety, project cargo,
seafarers A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...
welfare, maritime services, supply chain and young achievement. Nominations are open to the general public thus any person may nominate another company, corporation, organisation or individual for any award. Winners of 14 of the awards are selected by a combination of votes from a judging panel consisting of industry peers and popular vote by the readers of ''Daily Cargo News''. The final two award winners, Newsmaker of the Year and the annual induction to the Australian Maritime Hall of Fame, are determined by the editorial staff of ''Daily Cargo News''. Hosts of the awards ceremony have included former Australian cricket player Mike Whitney and television personality
Sam Kekovich Sam Kekovich (born 11 March 1950) is an Australian media personality, sports commentator, Australian 'Lambassador' and former Australian rules football player. He is well known for his controversial behaviour, both on and off the field, and mo ...
.


Charity

''Daily Cargo News'' participates in a number of staff and industry driven charity initiatives, most notably the annual Shipping Industry Golf Challenge. To date this event has raised over A$633,000 for the oncology unit at
Westmead Children's Hospital The Children's Hospital at Westmead (formerly Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children) is a children's hospital in Western Sydney. The hospital was founded in 1880 as "The Sydney Hospital for Sick Children". Its name was changed to the "Royal Alex ...
.


Digitisation

The paper has been partially digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program project of the
National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
.


See also

* List of newspapers in Australia * List of newspapers in New South Wales


References


External links


''Daily Cargo News'' official website
* {{Trove newspaper, 641 , Daily Commercial News and Shipping List , Sydney, NSW : 1891 - 1954 Newspapers published in Sydney Weekly newspapers published in Australia 1891 establishments in Australia Publications established in 1891 Shipping in Australia Newspapers on Trove