Business
27 August, 2025
The final print edition ... North West Weekly to go digital
There will no longer be a printed local newspaper in North West Queensland.
This will be the final printed edition of North West Weekly.
It is with a heavy heart that I bring you this news, but the harsh reality is that we have not been able to grow enough to sustain the cost and workload of a weekly printed newspaper.
The consolation is that we will transform the business into a digital-only news outlet.
This will have benefits of its own, including the opportunity to report news as it happens.
Make no mistake, ceasing the print operation was a difficult decision to make.
In May last year, when North West Weekly came to life, it was done on the expectation that we would be able to build a strong news organisation with locally-based journalists.
We gave it a red-hot crack.
For more than 12 months, we produced a high-quality paper with two experienced reporters.
However, we still fell short of our initial target of sustaining at least three, but ideally four, full-time journalists.
Without growth, it placed greater pressure on the existing staff, with no ability to take annual leave or sick leave without putting a major strain on the day-to-day operations.
Printing a newspaper every week has its own pressures.
The cost of doing so is in excess of $200,000 per annum, including labour and freight.
But it also comes with a hard deadline, which adds stress on a very lean organisation.
If you’re sick after the Mount Isa Rodeo, for example, there is no choice but to push through.
MIXED SUPPORT
Since building a newspaper from scratch – at the request of the community – we have had mixed levels of support.
The Mount Isa City Council and Cloncurry Shire Council deserve high praise for their unwavering commitment to the concept of a free, local, independent newspaper.
Businesses such as Bell and Moir Toyota, Mount Isa Paint and Decor, City and Country Realty, Outback Auctions, Western Appliances, Hankinson Smash Repairs, and Mount Isa Mining Supplies have also backed this publication from day one.
And our two local members, Bob and Robbie Katter, have been massive supporters.
The Member for Traeger even picked up the phone and urged local businesses and resource companies to back the paper.
However, the North West, and Mount Isa in particular, is in a strange period. With the uncertainty over the MICO closure and the potential for the copper smelter to shut, some local businesses are taking a conservative view in regards to their spending, which is understandable.
Major corporations are the biggest hurdle.
A massive portion of the city’s income ends up outside of the region, and very little is returned to the community.
The likes of Qantas, Virgin, Bunnings, Harvey Norman, Coles, Woolworths, Kmart and the big banks have contributed absolutely nothing to the North West Weekly. Their contribution to the community in general is just as dismal.
The major licensed venues have also been hesitant to play a role in supporting local news.
It’s been great to have the support of the Mount Isa Irish Club for the past few months, but the likes of the Barkly Hotel, Isa Hotel, Overlander and Buffs Club have been largely missing in action.
For the first year, we dropped 100 papers at the Buffs each Thursday – they were gone by the next morning.
Yet the biggest venue in Mount Isa spent all of its marketing budget on TV, radio and social media.
Even worse, the same radio station was stealing our news content for their bulletins.
Then there are the North West resource companies.
Unfortunately, despite a lot of encouraging conversations and some hit-and-miss advertising, we have not been able to lock in any kind of long-term commitments with some of the region’s major mining companies.
One of these corporations has spent more money in the Sydney Morning Herald than with the newspaper that actually serves the community it operates in.
Governments, both at state and federal level, also need to make a decision regarding their support for community news, because there is currently no strategy in place to keep papers alive in regional areas.
POSITIVE OUTLOOK
While it is devastating to have to stop printing, the shift to online news does have benefits.
Firstly, we can dedicate more time to bringing you up-to-date news as it happens.
With a much-needed holiday on the horizon, we’ll spend the next four weeks working on a long-term solution so that it is sustainable and suits the needs of the community.
Making news accessible to those unable to view it online is a top priority.
In the meantime, you can sign up to receive our weekly newsletter via email at www.northwestweekly.com.au/subscribe