Did you know that Geelong Advertiser is the oldest newspaper in Victoria? It was established in 1840. The first edition was printed on 21 November 1840. The founder of Geelong Advertiser is John Pascoe Fawknerwww.geelongsdvertiser.com.au.

Alfonsa and I (both are Indonesian journalists) had a chance to visit newspaper as part our fellowship’s assignment from 16 to 18 May 2011. We were accompanied by Setyo Budi who worked as our translator. On the first day, we met Greg Dundas, Chief of Staff for the newspaper. He told a brief history about the newspaper.

This newspaper is owned News Limited, a media company that also owns national and local newspapers as The Australian, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Courier Mail and Sky cable television in Australia. Geelong Advertiser also publishes free weekly bulletins: Geelong News and Echo. Every day it Geelong Advertiser prints 35.000-45.000 copies.

During the attachment we sat in conference meetings that were held at 2.30pm every day. The meetings were held to discuss the lay out and articles that would be included in the following day edition. The meetings were effective; it took about one hour. In these meetings, editors brought a mock up newspaper lay out, that was used to plan the layout of the following day’s edition.