Illawarra Daily Mercury
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The ''Illawarra Mercury'' is a daily newspaper serving the
Illawarra The Illawarra is a coastal region in the Australian state of New South Wales, nestled between the mountains and the sea. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast region. It encompasses the two cities of Wollongo ...
region of
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 ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It has been published since 1855, making it one of Australia's oldest newspapers and the second oldest regional newspaper in New South Wales.Illawarra Mercury (2005).
Illawarra Mercury celebrating 150 years : 1855-2005
'. Illawarra Mercury, Wollongong, N.S.W. p. 9-11.
It has been published daily since December 1949, and has had no local daily competition since the 1960s. It has strong links to the Illawarra community. Under editor Peter Cullen, the ''Mercury'' was jocularly known as ''The Mockery'' among Illawarra residents for its poor copy editing, resulting in frequent
typographical error A typographical error (often shortened to typo), also called a misprint, is a mistake (such as a spelling mistake) made in the typing of printed (or electronic) material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual type-setting (typography). ...
s. As a result, it became a running gag on the ABC's '' Media Watch'' in the period when
Stuart Littlemore Stuart Littlemore KC is an Australian barrister and former journalist and television presenter. He created ABC Television's long-running '' Media Watch'' program, which he hosted from its inception in 1989 to 1997. Early career Littlemore wa ...
hosted the programme. The ''Mercury'' is published in the standard Australian tabloid format, with each page having an approximate size of A3. The ''Mercury'' has had several Walkley Award winners on staff, most recently journalists Mario Christodoulou (2008), Nicole Hasham and Laurel-Lee Roderick (2010), and photographer Sylvia Liber (2014). The paper has often supported
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
at state and federal elections, but backed the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
for the
2011 New South Wales state election Elections to the 55th Parliament of New South Wales were held on Saturday, 26 March 2011. The 16-year-incumbent Labor Party government led by Premier Kristina Keneally was defeated in a landslide by the Liberal–National Coalition opposition ...
. It has links to neither party. Alistair Langford-Wilson became editor in April 2012. The ''Illawarra Mercury'' is owned by
Australian Community Media Australian Community Media (ACM) is a media company in Australia responsible for over 160 regional publications. Its mastheads include the ''Canberra Times'', ''Newcastle Herald'', '' The Examiner'', ''The Border Mail'', '' The Courier'' and th ...
, though the newspaper is editorially independent.
Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...
became a major shareholder in 1962 only to later acquire the paper in 1969. Fairfax merged with
Nine Entertainment Nine Entertainment (registered as Nine Entertainment Co. Pty Ltd) is an Australian publicly listed media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate brandi ...
in 2018.


History

The ''Illawarra Mercury'' was established by
Thomas Garrett Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...
and W. F. Cahill in 1855. The first issue was printed as 8 large folio pages and was circulated on 8 October 1855. Initially the newspaper was published once a week then increased to twice weekly in 1929. During the 1930s the depression had a significant effect on the region and forced the newspaper to revert to a weekly publication. It wasn’t until 1950 that the newspaper increased its publication to a daily paper; this led to the newspaper changing its name to the ''Illawarra Daily Mercury'', which lasted until 1954. In 1979 and after having dropped the "Daily" from its title the ''Illawarra Mercury'' officially became a metropolitan daily newspaper. One of the significant events of the newspaper includes the amalgamation with the ''Bulli Times'' and ''Port Kembla Pilot'' in February 1949. The paper also later merged with the ''South Coast Times'' in 1968. In 1981 the ''Illawarra Mercury'' acquired a new offset press that allowed the newspaper to be brought to life in full colour. As technology emerged an order was placed in 1988 for a new electronic colour scanner which would enhance the newspaper's production and appearance. It was the first newspaper in Australia to use the state-of-the-art Itek 210S scanner. In 2012 Fairfax relocated the editorial production, involving subeditors and page layout, of ''Illawarra Mercury'' to New Zealand.


Proprietors

* Thomas Garrett * John Curr * Archibald Campbell * Joseph Hart * Margaret Campbell * Edward Allen * Standish Musgrave * Wilfrid Musgrave * R Henderson * John Fairfax Ltd * Ron Steward * Corinne Whiteman


Readership

Despite being marketed towards residents of the Illawarra and surrounding regions, it can be purchased throughout the
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
metropolitan region where it is popular due to the high quality of its horse-racing and sport coverage.


Awards

In 2005 The ''Mercury'' was named Newspaper of the year 20,000-50,000 circ. by the Pacific Area Newspaper Publisher's association PANPA. In 2004 the ''Illawarra Mercury'' won the Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism and the Pacific Area Newspapers Publishers’ Association Marketing prize. Its editorial cartoonist,
Vince O'Farrell Vince is a given name, it is the anglicisation and shortened form of the name Vincent, as well as a surname. It may refer to: Given name People * Vince Agnew (born 1987), American football player * Vince Cable (born 1943), British politician ...
, has won international awards for his work - his cartoon immediately after the
11 September 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
depicting tears rolling down the
Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...
's cheeks is one example. O'Farrell is a six-time winner of the Rotary cartoons award. The ''Illawarra Mercury'' in 1972 won two of the State’s leading newspaper awards – a W. A. Richard award for technical excellence in newspaper production and a "certificate of merit in journalism".


Archives

The newspaper is available on microfilm at Wollongong City Library and the State Library of New South Wales. It has been digitised by the National Library of Australia under its Newspaper Digitisation Program.


Digitisation

The issues of this paper from 1856 to 1954 have been digitised as part of the
Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text document ...
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 ...
."Newspaper Digitisation Program"
National Library of Australia. Retrieved 14 February 2014.


See also

*
List of newspapers in Australia This is a list of newspapers in Australia. For other older newspapers, see list of defunct newspapers of Australia. National In 1950, the number of national daily newspapers in Australia was 54 and it increased to 65 in 1965. Daily newspape ...


References


External links


''Illawarra Mercury'' homepage
* * {{Illawarra region topics Newspapers published in New South Wales Wollongong Newspapers established in 1855 Daily newspapers published in Australia Newspapers on Trove 1855 establishments in Australia