Editor Ash Long says: Welcome to Local Media Pty Ltd, publishers of the Melbourne Observer and The Local Paper.

Local Media Pty Ltd has its origins in 1969 when the first copies of the Melbourne Observer rolled off the presses, as Victoria’s first Sunday newspaper.

More than half a century later, the Melbourne Observer  continues as Victoria’s independent weekly newspaper, inserted into Its sister newspaper network, The Local Paper, serving the suburbs of Melbourne, as well as the Mornington Peninsula, and a good slice of regional Victoria.

You can read the Melbourne Observer and The Local Paper newspapers, free, online, as well as in print.

In September 1969, Victoria had just seen the introduction of decimal currency, and the abolition of six o’clock closing. They were different times, with different social values. Fax machines, and the internet, had yet to appear. The Observer has gone through four very different phases:

• Gordon Barton tried a left-wing anti-war presentation;
• Maxwell Newton ran a right-wing ‘red top’ tabloid of vulgar entertainment;
• Peter Isaacson aimed at a responsible, commercially feasible weekly over his 12 years proprietorship; and
• Ash Long, over his 20 years ownership (to date), has steered towards a strong community focus, with a skew towards entertainment and seniors.

Since 2002, the Observer has been joined by sister publications The Phoenix (a weekly in the bushfire recovery area in which $1.3 million advertising space was donated towards survivors), and The Local Paper.

The Local Paper is a a strong community newspaper network with editions in print and online. Proprietor Ash Long’s connection began in Week 3 of the Sunday Observer’s publication, and then from 1973 when he first worked for the Leader group as a ‘stringer’. He was later a senior executive at the Leader group.
Since, he has owned his own media companies; operated the Chronicle group over 10 years (Yea, Kinglake, Whittlesea, Yarra Glen, Nagambie, Broadford, Kilmore, Seymour), was Publisher at the Canberra Weekly; and became a TV producer (Mansfield’s Melbourne, The Sydney Report, The Brisbane Report and The Adelaide Report).

If you have any questions about our newspapers, please feel free to contact Ash Long personally.

Email: editor@LocalMedia.com.au
Phone: 1800 231 311
Mobile: 0450 399 932
Post: PO Box 1278, Research, Vic 3095.