Veteran journo turning heads in regional publishing game

NEWS industry veteran Chris Earl has certainly set tongues wagging since launching his free weekly newspaper the Loddon Herald in January 2021.

A serial award winner ever since, his latest triumphs were being named the Rural Press Club of Victoria’s Journalist of the Year at the end of 2025 and the Loddon Herald receiving this year’s Community Champion Award.

The former Bendigo Advertiser deputy editor said the double-barelled awards were “very much about what the paper is about – the community and their stories”.

“It’s about being with them on whatever the issue is or whatever the event is or whatever the achievement is,” he said.

“It’s about (reflecting) the community, and every community is very different.

“In the case of the Loddon Herald, the Loddon Shire has no one community of more than 1000 people.

“There’s no hub, it’s 6000 square kilometres and there’s lots of connections but equally there’s uniqueness.

“On this occasion, to be recognised by peers in the industry is certainly humbling.”

He said the recognition also reinforces that, irrespective of the size of a community, there are aspirations, there are hopes and there are needs – and newspapers are purely the amplifiers for those voices.

“I’ll leave it for the industry and my peers to say whether I’m doing something right, but I do take the approach that the first and most important award is to (have the opportunity to) mirror the communities and their people,” he said.

“Anything after that is a bonus.

“We’re very much about the community and what matters – that’s not just the big stories but it’s (also) the little activities that are important irrespective of the size of the organisation.

“If a story matters to our communities, it matters to the newspaper.”

Mr Earl said if awards were the only barometer, “You’d say that the Loddon Herald has been pretty consistent over the last five years”.

“That’s just backing up what I’ve always said about the role and the place of country community newspapers, that they do remain relevant and even so in the print form.

“Deakin University research a couple of years ago (found) 75 per cent of people in country Australia want to see their local news in their local newspaper in print, and that backs up more than anything the editorial content approach that I look to achieve.

“Using social media as a primary tool of communications, it’s here one minute and then it’s not there the next – a newspaper writes tomorrow’s history today and is always present.

“It’s that commitment, that passion that’s never waned, of helping people share their stories.

“It’s the investment in the content and ultimately people look to a newspaper, whether it’s in print or online, for the content that attracts them – the news.

“There will always be stories that are better than what you have – it’s just as long as you’re consistent and reflecting the community.

“The recognition that comes your way – well, that’s good, but you still have to get the paper out next week.”