The origins of the Port Lincoln Times began when the Recorder in Port Pirie was taken over by Mrs R.L. McGregor and her two sons. McGregor had worked under David Drysdale at the Port Augusta Dispatch and claims she was instrumental in suggesting that he start a newspaper in Port Lincoln. In 1925, she was approached by another former Dispatch employee, Maurice Hill, to sell the Recorder, but she refused, and as a result, Hill, along with J.E. Edwards, founded the Port Lincoln Times. The Port Lincoln Times was first published on 5 August 1927, and unlike many newspapers of the time, it did not continue or subsume a previous publication, and used a simple banner title without a definite article or sur- and sub-titles. On page 6 of the first issue, the new publication was introduced as both independent and non-sectarian, alongside an overall aim "to entertain and instruct by giving the whole of the news of the district which it serves, and to give it brightly, briefly, accurately and completely". It did, however, absorb the West Coast Recorder, as a result of wartime consolidations, which was previously known as the Port Lincoln, Tumby and West Coast Recorder. The Recorder, prior to its own absorption, had itself absorbed the Streaky Bay Standard and West Coast Advertiser, which was only issued twice by David Drysdale in early April that year, and quickly becoming a "Supplement to the West Coast recorder". In 1960, it also absorbed the Areas Express, which had been printed in Cleve. Since its founding, the company has been situated on the same site on Washington Street, Port Lincoln, since 1927. By the 1960s the Hill family had modernised the look of the paper, and in 1990 the newspaper was taken over by Rural Press. Alongside many other rural publications in Australia, the newspaper is now a member of Fairfax Media Limited, a national company which has been purchasing and rationalising publication assets across the country. In addition, the newspaper also printed a short-lived free newspaper, the Eyre Peninsula Rural Chronicle, and a sister publication, the Peninsula Farmer, in conjunction with the West Coast Sentinel.
Distribution
The Port Lincoln Times is published on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is printed in Murray Bridge at the high-tech Rural Press printing centre. It serves the Lower Eyre Peninsula area, namely: Port Lincoln, Arno Bay, Cleve, Coffin Bay, Colton, Coomunga, Coulta, Cowell, Cummins, Darke Peak, Edillilie, Elliston, Karkoo, Kimba, Kyancutta, Lipson, Lock, Louth Bay, Mount Damper, Mount Hope, Mount Wedge, North Shields, Port Neill, Rudall, Sheringa, Talia, Tooligie, Tumby Bay, Ungarra, Wangary, Wanilla, Warramboo, Warrow, Wharminda, Wudinna, Yallunda Flat, and Yeelanna. The current monthly readership is estimated to be 19,000. Like other Fairfax Media publications, the newspaper is also available online.
Digitisation
carries images and text versions of the newspaper from 1927 to 1954, accessible using Trove, the on-line newspaper retrieval service.
