Local Media Pty Ltd produces the Mitchell Shire Edition of The Local Paper. Our company’s progenitors established editions of The Chronicle in Seymour, Kilmore and Broadford in the late 1980s-early 1990s against the established Free Press newspaper. But it gave us no joy to see the Smith family have to relinquish ownership of that newspaper in 2006, and to see the Kilmore Free Press title snuffed out in later years after a bitter fight.

The Kilmore Free Press was one of Victoria’s oldest newspapers, tracing its origins back to 1865.

For almost 40 years since the 1968, Jim Smith and his family operated The Free Press, a paid weekly newspaper. Jim and wife Lois took over the business from John McDonnell. Twins Peter and Grace also worked in the family business. Son, Bruce Smith, branched out on his own in 2004, to create the North Central Review free newspaper, soon with the backing of fourth-generation newspaper publishers Bob Yeates and Wally Mott.

The Smith father-son battle lasted for two years, with a 2004 Free Press editorial saying that “a major publisher in the outer south-east of Melbourne is also ready to move into the area, and Kilmore will, supposedly, then have three weekly papers – two free throaways, and your own local community newspapers.” Paul Thomas of the Star News Group did indeed start the competitor publication.

Smith bantered: “‘Freebies’ are stuffed into letterboxes or thrown in people’s gardens as litter, without any request to receive them, and a large number of despatched to the recycling bin without even being requested.” The rhetoric was not enough to save Smith’s Free Press.

In its edition of July 6, 2006, in a story penned by editor Bill West, Jim Smith noted that he had served his apprenticeship as a printer at The Free Press since 1986. His editorial recorded “overwhelming sadness and profound regret”, making the claim that his newspaper had offered “possibly the best newspaper value in Australia”. He lamented that the district could not afford to support three weekly newspapers.

“The Smith family will bow out gracefully with heads held high, content in the knowledge that we have produced a quality product that has served the community faithfully and over four decades.” He commented that the other two newspapers in the area had strong financial backing. He gave thanks to Chris McPherson of Shepparton Newspapers “whose sterling efforts dug The Free Press out of a deep gole when a large portion of staff was persuaded into leaving en masse to form an opposition newspaper”.

Smith said that the new owners – Yeates and Mott – had given as assurance that the Free Press would continue to operate as a paid-circulation newspaper. The Kilmore Free Press newspaper ceased to be publish in 2021. A small-circulation Free Press edition for the Romsey and Lancefield area continued for a while.