West Coast Sentinel


West Coast Sentinel is a weekly newspaper published Thursdays by Australian Community Media in Ceduna, South Australia. It was founded in mid-1912, and has been published continuously since then. It is now part of the Fairfax Media group.

History

The West Coast Sentinel began publication in Streaky Bay on Friday 28 June 1912. At the time, its publishers hoped that the paper's reach would extend beyond its initial region stating, "...although the journal is to be published at Streaky Bay it will serve the whole West Coast, and endeavor to safeguard interests and foster development of the smallest, equally the largest town or settlement".
On 25 April 1925, the title of the newspaper was simplified to West Coast Sentinel, with a subtitle that read "A Weekly Paper alive to the needs of the West Coast." and a subtitle that read: "The only paper published on the great West Coast of S.A." In 1930, due to pressures from the Great Depression, the newspaper absorbed the Western Mail, which was printed by A.C. Lawrie. In addition, the newspaper also printed the short-lived Eyre Peninsula Rural Chronicle, and a sister publication, the Peninsula Farmer, in conjunction with the Port Lincoln Times.
Alongside many other rural publications in Australia, the newspaper is now a member of Fairfax Media Limited.

Distribution

The newspaper is published every Thursday, a print run of approximately 3,000 copies which are sold across the Eyre Peninsula and Far West including: Ceduna, Streaky Bay, Wudinna, Elliston, Yalata, Nundroo, Penong, Thevenard, Smoky Bay, Port Kenny, Venus Bay, Wirrulla, Poochera, Minnipa, and Kyancutta. It has a claimed average weekly readership of 5,600.

Digitisation

carries images and text versions of the newspaper from 1912 to 1954, accessible using Trove, the on-line newspaper retrieval service.