About Moreton Daily News

Moreton Daily News

Moreton Daily News — subtitled "your local community newspaper" — is a free fortnightly community news and lifestyle newspaper published for the Moreton Bay region of South East Queensland. Published by MBRIT (Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism), the region's tourism and economic development body, the paper's first issues appeared in early 2022: Issue 1 of the North and South editions was dated 2 February 2022, while the East edition — formerly titled Dolphins News and based at Clontarf — traces its first issue to 2021. Despite the "Daily" in its name, the paper's catalogued frequency is fortnightly. The National Library of Australia describes it as a free community news and lifestyle newspaper providing locals with public-interest stories from businesses, organisations and individuals across news, community, business and lifestyle.

Overview

Moreton Daily News serves the City of Moreton Bay — one of Australia's fastest-growing local government areas, stretching from the Redcliffe Peninsula and the bay islands through Caboolture to the hinterland. The paper is published in zoned editions — North, South and East — so that each part of the region gets its own local content. As a free paper, it is distributed across the region's suburbs and townships, funded through the MBRIT publishing operation and local advertising.

History

The paper was launched in the aftermath of News Corp Australia's 2020 regional print closures, which ended the print editions of the Moreton Bay region's corporate titles. MBRIT — Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism, the body that promotes the region to visitors and investors — moved into the gap with a community newspaper of its own. The East edition began in 2021 as Dolphins News, based at Clontarf on the Redcliffe Peninsula; the North and South editions followed with Issue 1 dated 2 February 2022, published from Kippa Ring. The "your local community newspaper" subtitle declared the paper's positioning: a community title for the region's locals, by the region's own industry body.

Content

Moreton Daily News publishes public-interest stories from the region's businesses, organisations and individuals, spanning news, community, business and lifestyle. The zoned editions carry local news for their districts — council affairs, development, community events, schools, sport — alongside lifestyle features, business profiles and tourism content reflecting MBRIT's remit. The paper's lifestyle coverage suits the Moreton Bay region's identity: the bay and its islands, the beaches, the hinterland, and the outdoor life.

Coverage and Audience

The paper's three editions — North, South and East — divide the City of Moreton Bay into coverage zones: the northern districts around Caboolture, the southern suburbs, and the eastern bay areas including the Redcliffe Peninsula (the former Dolphins News patch). Its readers are the region's households — the young families of the growth corridors, the established bayside communities, the hinterland townships — reached free and fortnightly through the paper's distribution network.

Ownership

Moreton Daily News is published by MBRIT — Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism — the region's tourism and economic development organisation, based at Kippa Ring (with the East edition's origins at Clontarf). The paper is thus a destination-marketing body's community newspaper: an unusual ownership model in Australian regional publishing, where the publisher's core business is promoting the region rather than selling news.

Digital Presence

Moreton Daily News is available in both print and online editions, with the National Library of Australia's edeposit collection preserving its digital issues from 2022. The paper's online presence carries the fortnightly's community news and lifestyle content to readers digitally, complementing the free print distribution across the region's three editions. The NLA's cataloguing — as a community newspaper of the Moreton Bay district — secures the young paper's place in the national record.

The Region the Paper Serves

The City of Moreton Bay is one of Queensland's great growth stories: a local government area of more than 500,000 people stretching from the Redcliffe Peninsula — the bay-side suburbs of Clontarf, Margate, Redcliffe and Scarborough — north through the Pine Rivers districts and Caboolture to the Glass House Mountains hinterland. The region combines bayside lifestyle, suburban growth corridors, rural hinterland and island communities. Moreton Daily News is the paper of this whole sprawling municipality: the free fortnightly that tries to give a single community identity to a region assembled from historically separate districts.

The MBRIT Model

MBRIT — Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism — is the region's destination marketing and economic development body: the organisation behind the "Visit Moreton Bay" brand, the tourism campaigns, and the investment attraction work. Its move into newspaper publishing was unconventional: a tourism body launching a community newspaper to fill the gap left by the corporate press's retreat. The model gives the paper a distinctive character — strong on lifestyle, business and tourism content — and a distinctive funding base, tied to the region's visitor economy as well as its local advertisers.

Dolphins News: The East Edition's Origins

The East edition's former title, Dolphins News, rooted the paper in the Redcliffe Peninsula — the home of the Dolphins, the rugby league club that joined the NRL in 2023 and gave the peninsula a national sporting identity. Based at Clontarf and first published in 2021, Dolphins News served the bayside suburbs before being folded into the Moreton Daily News stable as the East edition. The lineage gives the paper a direct connection to the peninsula's community — the Dolphins' heartland.

The 2020 Gap

Moreton Daily News was born into the gap created by News Corp Australia's May 2020 announcement, which ended the print editions of the region's corporate titles — the papers that had served Caboolture, Redcliffe and the Pine Rivers districts. For a region of half a million people, the loss of printed local papers was a significant civic event. MBRIT's paper, launching its North and South editions in February 2022, was the region's own answer: a free community newspaper, zoned for local relevance, published by the body whose job is to champion the region.

The Zoned-Edition Model

The North, South and East editions reflect the region's geography: three papers under one masthead, each serving its zone. The North edition covers Caboolture and the northern districts; the South edition the Pine Rivers and southern suburbs; the East edition the Redcliffe Peninsula and the bay. The model — familiar from the community-newspaper groups — lets advertisers buy a zone or the whole region, and lets readers get news that is genuinely local to their part of a very large municipality. The fortnightly frequency gives each edition room for features and lifestyle content alongside the news.

A Region's Own Paper

Moreton Daily News is an experiment in community publishing: a free fortnightly newspaper owned not by a media company but by the region's own industry and tourism body. From its February 2022 launch — and the East edition's 2021 origins as Dolphins News — the paper has served the City of Moreton Bay's half-million residents with zoned, local, community-focused journalism. Archived by the National Library from its first issues, the paper is both a young publication and already part of the region's recorded history: the bay region's own newspaper, in print and online.

The paper's "your local community newspaper" promise — free, fortnightly, zoned across North, South and East — continues to define its place in the Moreton Bay media landscape.

A community newspaper for one of Australia's fastest-growing regions, still publishing.