Geelong Advertiser

The Geelong Advertiser was initially edited by James Harrison, a Scottish emigrant, who had arrived in Sydney in 1837 to set up a printing press for the English company Tegg & Co.{{cite web|url=http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/about.html|title=About us|work=geelongadvertiser.com.au|access-date=20 March 2015}}

Moving to Melbourne in 1839, he found employment with John Pascoe Fawkner, as a compositor, and later editor, of Fawkner's Port Phillip Patriot. When Fawkner acquired a new press, Harrison offered him £30 for the original press, and started Geelong's first newspaper. The first edition of the Geelong Advertiser, which originally appeared weekly, was published on Saturday 21 November 1840, edited by 'James Harrison and printed and published for John Pascoe Fawkner (sole proprietor) by William Watkins...'{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92675358|title=WHOLESALE|newspaper=Geelong Advertiser|date=21 November 1840|access-date=24 December 2015|page=4}}

Its first editorial offered the following doggerel:

{{blockquote|Bring forth the press!

When first that mighty shout was heard.

Truth rose in radiant light ensphered.

The Nations to address. }}

By November 1842 Harrison had become the sole owner of the paper. For the first seven years it was printed in demi-folio size before changing to broadsheet. In 1858 the newspaper retired the original wooden press, adopted new typography, and was printed by a mechanised steam press.{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}}

From 1845 to 1847, the newspaper was named the 'Geelong Advertiser, and Squatters Advocate'.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nla.gov.au/ferg/bfull/14401401_bfull.html|title=Geelong advertiser and squatters advocate|website=www.nla.gov.au|access-date=2018-11-17}} The first edition under this title published on 28 May 1845.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nla.gov.au/ferguson/14401401/18450528/00050316/1-1.pdf|title=Geelong advertiser and squatters advocate|date=28 May 1845|access-date=17 November 2018}}

In 1860 the Advertiser was purchased by Alfred Douglass, but Harrison continued as editor until the end of March 1865, when he and Daniel Harrison left to found the Register.

Harrison was succeeded by Westfield as co-editor with G. R. Rippon (subsequently proprietor of the Hamilton Spectator).

In June 1866 Hicks succeeded Westfield and held the position for a year, when Horatio "Horace" Rowcroft became editor, and held that position till the Register amalgamated with the Advertiser in August 1869, and Berry served as editor for a considerable time.{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150707985|title=The Geelong Advertiser|newspaper=Geelong Advertiser|issue=13,652|location=Victoria, Australia|date=24 November 1890|accessdate=1 January 2025|page=2|via=National Library of Australia}}

The newspaper did not feature news on the front page until 21 June 1924, coinciding with the inauguration of a new printing press. Before that time the front page was devoted to classified advertising.{{cite web

|url=http://www.uq.edu.au/journ-comm/docs/pastissues/anhg27.pdf

|title=AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER No. 27

|date=May 2004

|work=University of Queensland School of Journalism & Communication website

|access-date=2007-12-24

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060903163557/http://www.uq.edu.au/journ-comm/docs/pastissues/anhg27.pdf

|archive-date=3 September 2006

}} Trials of a tabloid-sized paper were made in 2000, when a Sunday edition was printed for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.{{cite web

|url=http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ:11352/anjh10.pdf

|title=AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER No. 10

|date=December 2000

|work=University of Queensland School of Journalism & Communication website

|access-date=2013-04-28}} The large broadsheet paper size was used until 2001, when the newspaper changed to the tabloid format which has been used since.{{cite web

|url=http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ:8584/anhg_36_06.pdf

|title=AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER No. 36

|date=February 2006

|work=University of Queensland School of Journalism & Communication website

|access-date=2013-04-28

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710081524/http://www.uq.edu.au/journ-comm/docs/pastissues/number36.pdf

|archive-date=10 July 2007

|url-status=dead

|df=dmy

}}

• Geelong News
• Geelong Independent

{{Reflist}}

• Don Hauser, The Printers of the Streets and Lanes Of Melbourne (1837 - 1975) Nondescript Press, Melbourne 2006
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090918012713/http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/extras/web_school_project_material.pdf History of The Geelong Advertiser]

• [http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/ The Geelong Advertiser]
• [http://www.ifra-nt.com/website/ntwebsite.nsf/0/4BD3BCB25B927DD8C12571D8002D2DFD?OpenDocument&3&E&MIAJOI-6GVJJT Interview with Peter Judd, editor]
• {{trove newspaper|558|Geelong Advertiser|Vic. : 1859 - 1929}}
• Digitised [https://web.archive.org/web/20141215053922/http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/node/6104 World War I Victorian newspapers] from the State Library of Victoria

{{News Corp Australia}}

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Category:1840 establishments in Australia

Category:Daily newspapers published in Australia

Category:Mass media in Geelong

Category:News Corp Australia

Category:Newspapers established in 1840

Category:Newspapers on Trove

Category:Newspapers published in Victoria (state)