Victoria’s oldest newspaper, the Geelong Advertiser, has celebrated its 175-year anniversary with a dinner for 200 guests including business leaders, celebrities, athletes and politicians.
The first edition of the Addy was printed on Saturday November 21, 1840 making it Victoria's oldest morning newspaper brand. News Corp acquired the paper in 1987 and today the Geelong Advertiser continues to be a leading source of news, sport and entertainment in the city, with a significant reach across the Bellarine Peninsula and the Surf Coast.
To mark the milestone, the newspaper produced a souvenir wrap edition using an historical format. For inspiration, editor Nick Papps and his team looked at a 1969 copy of the paper and used the same fonts and style.
“It is today’s news told in the way of the past,” said Papps. “To celebrate 175 years is just a marvellous milestone and just shows the power of the print medium to tell a story. The Geelong Advertiser is the pulse of the city and surrounding regions and the glue that keeps the community connected to local, domestic and international news and events. The population is growing rapidly and, importantly, the region is developing into a hotbed for new and emerging industries.”
Politicians, business leaders, athletes and celebrities who hail from Victoria’s second largest city gathered to celebrate the milestone, including Tour de France winner Cadel Evans, Geelong premiership captain Cameron Ling and Geelong Mayor Darryn Lyons.
The Advertiser is encouraging readers to vote for the paper’s top 10 stories over the years and is also producing a 12-part magazine, celebrating the best of the Advertiser, which will be included in the Saturday paper.
Papps is proud of the paper’s active campaigning over the years. “We are a paper that passionately campaigns for its region. On our masthead it says ‘the voice of Geelong’, and we have been the voice of Geelong since 1840.”
The Advertiser, which is a multiple winner at the PANPA newspaper of the year awards, has had many campaigns over the years. Recently, it successfully campaigned to keep Avalon Airport open, and was also successful in getting a hospital for the northern suburbs.
Papps added: “I think, for a newspaper, the most important thing is to support your community, to celebrate your community, shine a light in dark places, and walk shoulder-to-shoulder with our community every day, and that’s what we do."