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''The'' ''Mercury'' is a daily newspaper, published in
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
,
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
, Australia, by Davies Brothers Pty Ltd (DBL), a subsidiary of
News Corp Australia News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...
, itself a subsidiary of
News Corp News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the News Corporation (1980–2013), original News Corporation, it was formed ...
. The weekend issues of the paper are called ''Mercury on Saturday '' and ''Sunday Tasmanian''. The current editor of ''The'' ''Mercury'' is Craig Warhurst.


History

The newspaper was started on 5 July 1854 by George Auber Jones and John Davies. Two months subsequently (13 September 1854) John Davies became the sole owner. It was then published twice weekly and known as the ''Hobarton Mercury''. It rapidly expanded, absorbing its rivals, and became a daily newspaper in 1858 under the lengthy title ''The Hobart Town Daily Mercury''. In 1860 the masthead was reduced to ''The Mercury'' and in 2006 it was further shortened to simply ''Mercury''. With the imminent demise of the ( Launceston) ''
Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'', ''The Mercury'', from March 1928, used the opportunity to increase their penetration there by expanding the branch office in the northern city, and by putting on "fast cars" to get the paper to Launceston by breakfast. After Davies' retirement in 1871, the business was carried on by his sons
John George Davies Sir John George Davies (17 February 1846 – 12 November 1913), generally known as (Sir) George Davies, was a Tasmanian politician, newspaper proprietor and first-class cricketer. Davies' Jewish father John Snr. and grandfather had been tran ...
and
Charles Ellis Davies Charles Ellis Davies (13 May 1847 – 1 February 1921) was an Australian politician. He was born in Wellington, New South Wales, the son of John Davies, later co-founder of the ''Hobart Mercury'', and younger brother of John George Davies. ...
who later traded as Davies Brothers Ltd. John Davies died on 11 June 1872, aged 58. The company remained in the family's hands until 1986 when the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) assumed majority ownership. In 1988 News Limited (now
News Corp Australia News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...
), a subsidiary of
News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
acquired the HWT, and then the remaining minority interests. However, the subsidiary that owns the Tasmanian operation is still known as Davies Brothers Pty Limited. The ''Saturday Evening Mercury'', known locally as the 'SEM' was printed and circulated for readers on a Saturday evening from 1954 to 1984, it was replaced in early 1984 by the ''Sunday Tasmanian'' which still exists today. Other Tasmanian titles published by the company were the weekly rural newspaper ''Tasmanian Country'' and the weekly regional newspaper ''Derwent Valley Gazette'' which were acquired from independent publishers in the early 1980s. Both were sold to public relations firm Font PR in 2020. From 1987-2007 Davies Brothers published the monthly travel magazine ''Treasure Islander''. At various stages in its history there have been limited experiments with regional papers—such as ''The Westerner'' which succeeded ''
The West Coast Miner ''The West Coast Miner'' was a fortnightly newspaper for the West Coast Tasmanian community, based in Queenstown from December 1975 to 1978. It was originally funded by community arts funding from the Australian Commonwealth Government, and wa ...
'' in 1979 to serve the
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...
until its demise in 1995—as well as suburban newspapers for the Hobart market, which appeared in various guises from 1966 until 1998. In November 2006 the company launched what it called a "newspaper in a newspaper" the ''Kingborough Times'' which appeared monthly within the ''Sunday Tasmanian''. This was followed in June 2007 by the ''Northern Times'' with news from Hobart's northern suburbs. Both inserts have since ceased publication.


Editors

The following people were editors of ''The Mercury'':


Press operations

In July 2007 News Corporation approved a new $31 million press centre for Davies Brothers Pty Ltd, publisher of the ''Mercury'' and the ''Sunday Tasmanian'', including the installation of the latest colour press. Davies Brothers opened the new print centre at the Tasmanian Technopark in Dowsing Point, north of Hobart, in 2009. A new KBA Comet four-colour press replaced the 35-year-old Goss Urbanite press that had been housed in the Argyle Street wing of the company's city site. Other operations of the newspaper group continued to be based in the heart of the city at 93 Macquarie Street. The success of the new centre soon saw the introduction of local printing of interstate titles for local distribution. This includes the national daily ''
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 Melbourne's ''
Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...
''.


Locations

In November 2011 Davies Brothers chief executive officer Rex Gardner announced that the company would move from its landmark Macquarie St headquarters in August 2012, leasing a new office at 2 Salamanca Square. The move took place over the weekend of 28–29 July 2012, although months of work had taken place in advance. The company has branch offices in Launceston and
Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban popul ...
, as well as its print centre at Dowsing Point and its distribution centre at Western Junction near Launceston. Its branch office at
New Norfolk New Norfolk is a town on the Derwent River (Tasmania), River Derwent, in the south-east of Tasmania, Australia. At the Census in Australia#2011, 2011 census, New Norfolk had a population of 5,543. Situated north-west of Hobart on the Lyell Hi ...
closed in December 2010. An office in William St, Queenstown closed in the early 1990s. It was announced in May 2013 that the original site had been sold to an unidentified buyer including the heritage-listed Ingle Hall, which was built in 1814 and housed the Mercury Print Museum. The Macquarie St and Argyle St frontages of the Mercury building were heritage listed in 2012 Later in 2013, the purchasers were identified as
Penny Clive A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...
and her husband Bruce Neill. Their intent was to transform it into restaurants, art galleries and a creative industries hub. It is now used for a restaurant and the Detached Artist Archive, a private gallery. From early 2013, the Mercury's Salamanca Square office hosted the Tasmanian bureaus of
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
Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
. The Mercury's Hobart offices have also hosted the Tasmanian bureau of
Australian Associated Press Australian Associated Press (AAP) is an Australian news agency. It was established by Keith Murdoch in 1935. AAP employs around 80 journalists who work in bureaus in all states and territories of Australia except the Northern Territory. It al ...
over many decades. In 2018, the
University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first pro ...
opened its Tasmanian Media School, co-located with the Mercury in its Salamanca Square office. In February 2022, the Mercury relocated to an internal office on the ground floor of the same Salamanca Square building it had occupied since 2012. A fraction of the space it once occupied on the floor above, it was the first time the company's offices did not have a street frontage. It continues to host the local bureau of
Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
.


Circulation and readership

As of March 2011, the ''Mercury'' reported its Monday–Friday circulation as 44,317 with an average readership of 107,000 and its Saturday circulation as 61,020 with readership of 146,000. The ''Sunday Tasmanian'' reported circulation of 58,148 with readership of 129,000. In March 2021, readership modelling from Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (emma™) reported the ''Mercury's'' average weekday readership had dropped to 76,000, the ''Saturday Mercury'' to 63,000 and the ''Sunday Tasmanian'' to 53,000.


''The Tasmanian Mail''

''The Tasmanian Mail'' was a weekly newspaper published by ''The Mercury'' from July 1877 to June 1935. It employed a separate staff from that which brought out the ''Mercury'', and was intended to cover the whole of the state. From 7 April 1921 it was published as ''The Illustrated Tasmanian Mail''. The following people were editors of the ''Mail'':


See also

*
List of newspapers in Tasmania This is a list of newspapers published in Tasmania in Australia through its history. From the founding as Van Dieman's Land, through the establishment of the Colony of Tasmania to the creation of a state of Australia as Tasmania in 1901 to the p ...


Notes


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mercury Newspapers in Hobart, Tasmania News Corp Australia Newspapers established in 1854 Davies Brothers Pty Ltd 1854 establishments in Australia Daily newspapers published in Australia Newspapers on Trove Macquarie Street, Hobart