Return of the bushrangers?

Abstract

The gradual shrinkage of the print news sector in Australia was accelerated by COVID-19, with Australia’s ‘Big Three’ of print news, News Corp, Fairfax/Nine, and Australian Community Media particularly hard hit. Unprecedented closures of newsrooms, printing sites, and newspapers opened up a market for the second coming of the small, independent ‘bush’ newspaper publisher. This chapter examines one particular case of a new greenfield printer/publisher, and asks, does technology hold the key to how future regional newspapers will emerge from the COVID-19 collapse? Is Australia likely to see the return of the ‘bushranger’ publisher – small, independent, and activist?. © (2022), (Taylor and Francis).