Daily Advertiser celebrates historic day

By Ken Grimson
Updated November 7 2012 - 2:15pm, first published December 30 2010 - 10:42pm
HISTORIC EVENT: John Winterbottom looks over the first edition of The Daily Advertiser, published on January 3, 1911. Picture: Hayley Hillis
HISTORIC EVENT: John Winterbottom looks over the first edition of The Daily Advertiser, published on January 3, 1911. Picture: Hayley Hillis

TODAY is significant in the history of The Daily Advertiser, marking 100 years since the newspaper changed from a tri-weekly publication to a daily.December 31, 1910, was the last issue of The Wagga Wagga Advertiser which had been published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for 30 years, since February, 1880.It was re-born as The Daily Advertiser on Tuesday, January 3, 1911 and has been published six days a week ever since.The big change was not trumpeted too loudly, but an article in the last edition of The Wagga Wagga Advertiser - perhaps written by publisher Stephen Sullivan - spoke of the positive reception the move had received."Since the announcement of daily publication of the paper, the proprietor has received manifestations of good will from all parts of the district, general satisfaction being expressed with a move in keeping with the rapid growth of the community," the article read.Secretary of the Wagga and District Historical Society, John Winterbottom, said the change to daily publication was a big gamble for Mr Sullivan at the time because of the extra cost involved in doubling production."But he read the growing population pretty well, and in the end it was no gamble, really," Mr Winterbottom said."It meant more advertising revenue and the smaller ads increased enormously."Because he had to fill up the paper every day he put on extra staff, as well. "The obituaries became quite lengthy."And if you fell over and broke your arm it pretty well made the headlines."The historic paper is kept in Charles Sturt University's archives section.Manager of the archives, Wayne Doubleday, said the change from tri-weekly to daily publication was a sign of the growing importance of the newspaper."I imagine there would not be many regional centres at the time that had their own daily newspaper," Mr Doubleday said.Another big occasion in the paper's history was the change from broadsheet size to tabloid on July 23, 1962.The Wagga Wagga Advertiser was founded in 1868 by Auber George Jones and Thomas Barlow and its 150th anniversary will fall in 2018.

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