COVID-19 forces Torres Strait's only paper to suspend publishing
By Christopher Moir
When COVID-19 induced travel restrictions to the Torres Strait Islands started, the daughters of Horn Island local Liberty Seekee had to rush home from their Brisbane boarding school.
With remote communities in the Torres Strait at greater risk from COVID-19, the teenage girls self-isolated without any other family members on the mainland for two weeks before they could fly home.
Stuck in a hotel in Cairns, the girls were finding it hard to go without supplies like proper shampoo.
In came local federal MP Warren Entsch, who used his own time to go out and buy, then deliver, necessities to the hotel for Liberty’s daughters and other Torres Strait Island students in self-isolation.
If it were still March, this good news story probably would have featured in the Torres Strait’s only local paper, the Cape and Torres News.
Local stories can still be told by local radio station 4MW – who also broadcast news and community announcements in the widely spoken local language of Yumpla Tok.
But the Cape and Torres News publisher and editor Corey Bousen had to make the difficult decision to suspend publication in April, leaving many stories like Liberty’s untold.
The Cape & Torres News was set to close until the federal government's JobKeeper scheme was announced. Now the paper hopes to reopen once flights resume. (Twitter: Stefan Armbruster)
The Cape & Torres News was set to close until the federal government's JobKeeper scheme was announced. Now the paper hopes to reopen once flights resume. (Twitter: Stefan Armbruster)
With the cancellation of flights across Australia, Corey found himself without a way to get local Torres Strait news to the Torres Strait.
“The newspaper was printed in Townsville, trucked to Cairns overnight and then flown by varying different airlines to all corners of the distribution area.”
Cape and Torres News is printed in Townsville, then trucked to Cairns
Once in Cairns, the paper's flown by several airlines to communities across Cape York and the Torres Strait - including Horn Island.
The paper's sent by boat across the islands, including the Torres' most populous Thursday Island, or TI.
As the crow flies, the paper travels 1080 kilometres - more than the journey from Melbourne to Sydney - for just $2 a copy.
“It actually became impossible to fly the newspaper anywhere,” Corey said.
The situation could have been far worse. A week before the announced suspension, the Cape and Torres News was set to close for good.
Stop Press. RIP 'Torres News'. Final edition of a mighty regional newspaper. Huge loss for #TorresStrait & #CapeYork. More here: https://t.co/6uUsa5Xayn #media #journalism #coronavirus #Covid_19 #Aboriginal #Indigenous #qldpol #auspol @aaronsmithtweet @electricnerve @gara_vee pic.twitter.com/5G4HaItXlQ
— Stefan Armbruster (@StefArmbruster) March 31, 2020
“My primary motivation in planning to wind up the business was to ensure the newspaper’s employees were paid their full entitlements before the newspaper became completely insolvent,” Corey said in a post on the paper’s Facebook page.
Luckily, the Federal Government announced the JobKeeper scheme, saving the paper’s staff.
“The announcement this week of the federal government’s Job Keeper payment is a terrific initiative that will allow the newspaper’s staff to continue earning a wage,” Corey said.
But JobKeeper didn’t spell the end of the paper’s troubles. Previous mergers and social media’s cannibalisation of readers were already contributing towards its decrease in circulation numbers.
Until late last year, the Cape and Torres News was actually two distinct local weeklies for two distinct communities: Cape News for mainland Cape York and Torres News for the Torres Strait Islands.
With circulation down from 3000 to 1500 copies a week, however, Corey had to make the difficult choice to merge two separate community’s local papers into one.
“Getting rid of the Torres News as its own standalone masthead was a big decision,” Corey said.
“I actually publish a Cape York News section inside and a Torres News section inside, so they still keep their own identity.”
“But it just enabled me to improve editorial content because I had a much bigger paper, and also double the circulation.”
Torres News had been its own paper since 1957.
When Torres Strait outsider Corey and his parents, Mark and Meg, bought Torres News in 2002, they made sure the paper remained the voice for the local community.
“It’s not our opinion that counts, it’s the local population’s opinion that counts,” Corey said.
“It was their platform, it was for the local indigenous people, primarily, to have their issues voiced and focussed upon.”
Yet Warren Entsch wasn’t happy with the merger.
“I personally think that was a mistake. Cape York is Cape York and Torres Strait is Torres Strait,” Entsch said.
Last year’s merger “really surprised” Liberty Seekee but he chose to see its bright side.
“At least we’ve got a more substantial paper,” Liberty said.
By merging, Corey had enough advertising revenue to continue telling local stories.
“Torres News is very important to a lot of people growing up, it’s their local paper,” Corey said.
“Even on the outer islands, people were always very excited if you showed up, to get their photo in the paper.”
The Torres Strait may have a population of only 4500 but with an area covering nearly 50,000 square kilometres, and a border with Papua New Guinea, its been the set of several prominent news stories.
From the Malu Sara boating disaster, a visit by then Prime Minister Tony Abbott – in which local media were initially refused entry to the media junket – and tombstone openings, Torres News has been there to cover news important to the local community and to wider Australia.
But these stories were told when the paper was at its peak financial health and could pay to fly editors in, covering accommodation and other expenses on top of their wages.
Corey thinks those days are long gone.
“You can’t continue to pay unlimited amounts for journalism. You have to cut corners and eventually quality suffers,” Corey said.
The way he sees it, one of the only ways to keep regional news alive would be the ABC, but even Aunty couldn’t create the same coverage as local papers could.
“I don’t think they’re going to pay to have a journalist based on Thursday Island,” Corey said.
None of the problems the Cape and Torres News has faced – their suspension, merger or difficulty in producing quality journalism due to revenue hits – should have been a surprise to anyone who’s witnessed the ongoing plight of scores of regional news outlets across Australia.
The Public Interest Journalism initiative has identified 156 newsrooms across the country that have had to close, decrease their number of publications, end their print edition or merge with other papers.
The Torres News covered important local stories. (Supplied: Corey Bousen)
The Torres News covered important local stories. (Supplied: Corey Bousen)
(Supplied: Corey Bousen)
(Supplied: Corey Bousen)
The Cape & Torres News' coverage of Tony Abbott's visit as PM to the Torres Strait in 2015. (Twitter: Stefan Armbruster)
The Cape & Torres News' coverage of Tony Abbott's visit as PM to the Torres Strait in 2015. (Twitter: Stefan Armbruster)
Public Interest Journalism Initiative's Newsroom Mapping Project
Newsrooms in crisis
COVID-19 has turbo-charged closures, with News Corp suspending 60 of its community newspapers and Australian Community Media suspending 69.
Journalist Saffron Howden summarised the situation for Croakey.
“While public demand for journalism soars, the business of news has never been more precarious,” Saffron said.
“The advertising market is collapsing. And it’s hitting hardest where reliable, quality news is needed most – in rural communities.”
For Corey, he always knew the Cape and Torres News would close one day.
“I knew that the writing was on the wall for newspapers,” Corey said.
“Going back to even 2003, I knew that the internet would put us out of business one day.”
Even with this foresight, would he still have bought Torres News if he knew the actual challenges it would face?
“I’d absolutely do it again.”
FEATURED IMAGE: The Cape and Torres News has suspended publication due to flight and biosecurity restrictions brought on by COVID-19. The paper’s publisher hopes to resume printing once restrictions ease.
(Pexel)
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