Media in Townsville

Townsville is the media centre for North Queensland, with 4 commercial radio stations, 4 narrowcast radio stations, 3 community radio stations, 5 ABC radio stations, 3 commercial television stations, one regional daily newspaper and one community weekly newspaper. There are no local Sunday papers although the Sunday Mail (based in Brisbane) publishes a North Queensland edition, which is printed and distributed from Townsville (throughout Northern Queensland). Townsville also has extensive outdoor and indoor advertising media, ranging from taxi advertising to large-format billboards.

Print media

The Townsville Bulletin is the dominant newspaper in North Queensland with daily coverage on local, state, national and world news, plus a wide range of sections and liftouts covering health, real estate, youth, beauty, cars and lifestyle. The Bulletin has a $1.40 cover price on weekdays, increasing to $2.40 for the weekend edition, and is in tabloid format. In 2006 the Bulletin had a readership (average) Monday to Friday of 84,000 (up 15.5% on 2005) and weekend readership (average) of 104,000 (up 1.96% on 2005)^[1] and circulation (avg) of 27 187 Monday to Friday, weekend circulation (avg) of 41 814.^[2] The Townsville Bulletin is owned by News Limited, a subsidiary of News Corporation, and employs over 100 people.

DUO Magazine is a complimentary lifestyle magazine published monthly for men and women aged 25–54 years. DUO is the region's most popular magazine with 45,000+ readers of the printed edition and 33,000+ online readers. 12,000 copies of DUO are distributed to over 450 outlets throughout Townsville, Ingham, Ayr, Charters Towers, and Mt Isa and is carried on all Alliance Airlines flights to the major mines. It is also available from the Qantas Club at Townsville Airport and all leading hotels and accommodation.

Success Business Magazine is a quarterly corporate magazine that is distributed free to locals (10,000 copies and a readership exceeding 25,000) in Townsville City, Ayr, Burdekin, and Charters Towers. It is targeted at businesspeople aged between 25-55 years. Success Business Magazine is a glossy magazine that features local businesses through to national brands. It is also distributed at various businesses throughout the North Queensland region such as hotels, coffee shops and shopping centres.

Magnetic Island has two competing small publications; Magnetic Island Community News is printed weekly and Magnetic Times is published online.

The North Queensland Register is based in Townsville. However, it services the Queensland rural community from Rockhampton North. Owned by Rural Press Limited, it has a distribution of about 5,000.

Northern Services Courier is an independent newspaper for Defence Force personnel stationed in Townsville.

The Hack (formerly known as The Bullsheet) is the student community newspaper at James Cook University, published by the JCU Student Association. Outlook is the academic community newspaper at James Cook University and it is published by the University.

Broadcast centre for Triple M & hit103.1. Also houses the News Crew from Nine News North Queensland

THE PLACE street press is a free, monthly tabloid-size newspaper targeted at the music, arts and entertainment markets. The main readership demographic is 16–35-year-olds. 10,000 copies are distributed to hotels, retail, cafes, venues and many other locations through Townsville, Ayr, Magnetic Island, Ingham, Home Hill and Airlie Beach.

Radio

Television

Seven Queensland and WIN Television produce half-hour local news bulletins for the area on weeknights, both produced from newsrooms in the city and broadcast from studios in Maroochydore. Southern Cross Nine provides short local news updates, presented from studios in Canberra.

National and international news bulletins are shown on each respective network in place of or following local news - four are produced in Brisbane, with a Queensland focus (ABC, Seven, Nine and Ten). Network Ten in Brisbane also has a North Queensland reporter based in Townsville, covering roughly from the tip of Cape York South to Mackay.

New channels broadcast by all the networks in addition to the ones listed above are available on the digital service called Freeview Australia to viewers in Townsville and the surrounding region. These channels include ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBS Two, One, Eleven, 7Two, 7mate, 9Gem and 9Go!.

Pay TV

Internet

Currently the only major local producer of online journalism is ABC North Queensland. CityLife Magazine reproduces their full content online. The Townsville Bulletin publishes a small quantity of its content on the internet and WIN Television publish local news headlines online. There is also one specialty (Magnetic Island) news website called Magnetic Times. It is run by chief operating officer Jamie Cunningham.

References