Broken Hill’s independently owned newspaper, the Barrier Truth, has announced its shock closure.
After almost 130 years in operation, the Truth’s board announced to staff the union-run bi-weekly paper would be shut down as its final edition went to press.
Barrier Industrial Council president and newspaper board chair Roslyn Ferry told AAP the masthead had closed until further notice.
The board planned to seek legal and financial support following the closure, she said.
“It probably comes as no surprise that maintaining operations, particularly over the past 12 months, has been extremely challenging,” Ms Ferry said in a statement.
The Truth is no stranger to adversity after the community fought to save it during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the time, general manager Gavin Schmidt told ABC’s Australian Story the newspaper was bleeding up to $10,000 a day, and a decision had to be made whether to run the business into the ground or cease production immediately.
Staff voted to shut down the paper.
A local mining executive came to the rescue, and the Truth was saved, but on Tuesday, staff were again told they no longer had jobs.
Former general manager Robin Sellick told AAP the paper’s demise was sad for the mining town.
“I don’t think the community will have a full understanding of what the loss will mean for them,” Mr Sellick said on Friday.
“There’s no replacement … it’s a big loss.”
Broken Hill is a historic mining town in far-west NSW, more than 500km from its closest capital city.
The Truth was established in 1898 and was one of the few remaining independent newspapers in Australia.