History of the New England newspaper press 7 - Birth of Country Press Association

Thomas Mitchell Shakespeare (1873-1938), editor Grafton Argus and later founder of the Canberra Times, who helped transform the NSW Country Press Association. This is the seventh in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England 

One of the challenges we face as historians, whether professional or amateur, lies in the difficulties involved in breaching the barriers imposed by the present to enter that far country called the past.

What we think and feel about the past, the questions we ask of the past, is inevitably affected by current values and attitudes and by the world around us in often unseen ways. 

Today we are used to instant communication, to the sudden emergence and sometimes disappearance of new movements or organizations. It is hard to really visualize a world in which the only forms of communication were by letter or telegram on urgent matters, one in which travel could be slow and expensive despite the spreading railway lines.  

The many country papers at the end of the nineteenth century faced common problems that dictated cooperative action. These included industrial legislation, the cost of postage and the constant threats of defamation actions that could bankrupt individual papers.

Access to metropolitan and Government advertising was a particular problem. The many generally small country newspapers had no means of marketing directly. To advertisers, the large number of generally small country newspapers made placement of ads difficult and costly.

Advertising agents stepped into this gap selling advertisements in supplements that papers were then forced to carry at low profit margins as the only way of accessing metropolitan advertising.

The need for cooperative action was widely recognized, but hard to achieve. The various editors or proprietors knew or knew of each other though their papers, but only met at irregular intervals usually on the sidelines of particular conferences or meetings. The fierce competition between papers also impeded cooperation.

In 1890, a first attempt to form a provincial press grouping failed because of lack of interest. Discussions continued, but there was no concrete action. 

In 1889, proposed changes to the NSW Defamation Act brought country and metropolitan proprietors together in an industry meeting. There a group of country proprietors including W H Midgley (the North West Champion, Moree) and James C Leslie (Corowa Free Press) formed a committee to try to bring an association into existence. 

Progress was slow, but finally in October 1900 the NSW Country Press Association was born. The new Association had aspirations, but almost no money. 

By October 1903, the Association was in crisis. Revenue for the year was just £52, the salary of the Association’s secretary was still in arrears, while the Association had a net debt £51. The outlook seemed grim.

Just three years later, the position was very different. Central to that transformation was one man, Thomas Mitchell Shakespeare, proprietor of the Grafton Argus and later founder of the Canberra Times.

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020