About National Indigenous Times

National Indigenous Times

The National Indigenous Times (NIT) is Australia's national Indigenous affairs news publication, now operating as a daily online news service from West Perth, Western Australia. First published as a fortnightly newspaper on 27 February 2002, it has reported on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs — politics, native title, health, education, arts and justice — for more than two decades, surviving administration and a change of ownership to emerge as a digital-first, majority Indigenous-owned news outlet.

Overview

The NIT describes its mission as rigorous and fearless reporting on the issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Its coverage spans the full range of Indigenous affairs: federal and state Indigenous policy, native title and land rights, health and education outcomes, deaths in custody and justice issues, arts and culture, and sport. As a daily news website it publishes rolling coverage aimed at a national audience, supplemented by a social-media presence across the major platforms.

The publication is majority Indigenous-owned: its ownership is recorded as Indigenous businessman and former Kimberley Land Council chief executive Wayne Bergmann (51 per cent), journalist Tony Barrass (41 per cent) and former PwC senior partner Richard Gregson (9 per cent). The company describes itself as a 100 per cent Indigenous-owned business. Its headquarters are listed as West Perth, Western Australia.

The publication's website is nit.com.au. The domain is named here as an attributed candidate rather than a load-verified address, since direct loading checks could not be completed in the preparation of this profile.

History

The National Indigenous Times was established by Owen Carriage — the founder of the Koori Mail, Australia's long-running national Indigenous newspaper — with a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous backers, and first hit the streets on 27 February 2002 as a fortnightly newspaper. Its founding proposition was a national Indigenous newspaper independent of government funding: the paper's own account stressed that it did not and never had received government grants, relying instead on readers and advertisers, and publishing "without fear or favour" with a predominantly Indigenous team of writers and columnists.

The paper quickly established a reputation for hard-hitting investigative journalism. In 2006 it published a major story revealing that government staff had anonymously posed as independent witnesses in an ABC Lateline report on child abuse in remote Northern Territory communities, with particular reference to Mutitjulu — a scoop that reverberated through Indigenous affairs coverage nationally. The paper's investigative reporter Gerry Georgatos spent around six years with the title, reporting on native title, corruption and government neglect of impoverished communities.

The paper's history has not been without controversy. In February 2012 the ABC's Media Watch aired a segment detailing how the newspaper had repeatedly taken substantial material from other media sources without attribution; then-editor Stephen Hagan responded by promising more original material and proper citation. Hagan departed in December 2013.

The paper's most difficult period came in early 2015, when it was placed in administration amid accumulating legal bills from a defamation case and an unfair-dismissal claim by former editor Hagan. Administrators put the masthead up for sale while the paper continued publishing. It survived administration with a mix of its longstanding owners and new part-owners — but the newspaper's print era was ending.

In December 2015 journalist Tony Barrass bought the NIT masthead from the Sydney liquidators O'Brien Palmer and relaunched it as an online publication on 28 February 2016 — fourteen years to the day after the first print edition. The relaunch as a digital-first daily news service gave the masthead a second life, freed from the costs of print production and distribution that had helped sink the newspaper.

Ownership and structure

The relaunched NIT's ownership brought together Indigenous business leadership and journalism experience. Wayne Bergmann, the majority owner, is a prominent Indigenous businessman and former chief executive of the Kimberley Land Council — one of the country's most significant Aboriginal representative bodies. Tony Barrass, the journalist who bought the masthead from administration, holds the second stake. The ownership structure — majority Indigenous-held — is central to the publication's identity and its claim to be an Indigenous voice in the national media.

Coverage

The NIT's editorial remit is Indigenous Australia in the round. Its daily coverage includes federal Indigenous affairs policy — from the Closing the Gap framework to constitutional recognition debates — state and territory issues, native title determinations, health and education reporting, justice and deaths-in-custody coverage, arts and cultural stories, and profiles of Indigenous leaders, artists and achievers. The publication's investigative tradition, inherited from its newspaper years, continues in its reporting on government accountability and community issues.

The title's journalism has repeatedly intersected with national debates. Its 2006 Lateline investigation, its coverage of the Northern Territory intervention era, and its ongoing reporting on deaths in custody and youth justice have placed it at the centre of the country's most difficult conversations about Indigenous affairs. The paper's willingness to criticise governments of all persuasions — and to clash publicly with ministers, as in its 2012 confrontation with then-Indigenous affairs figure Mal Brough — reflects its founding "without fear or favour" posture.

The administration crisis

The events of early 2015 tested whether the NIT would survive at all. The paper's legal bills — arising from a defamation action and the unfair-dismissal claim brought by former editor Stephen Hagan — accumulated to the point where administrators were called in during January and February 2015. The news that an award-winning Indigenous newspaper might close prompted national coverage: the ABC reported the administrators' sale of the masthead, The Guardian noted the paper would keep publishing while in administration, and Crikey canvassed the prospects of a lifeline.

The paper did keep publishing through the administration, and the masthead found its buyer in Tony Barrass that December. The survival mattered beyond the fate of one title: the NIT was, at the time, one of very few national Indigenous-owned news outlets, and its disappearance would have narrowed an already thin field. That it emerged from administration under majority Indigenous ownership — with Wayne Bergmann's 51 per cent stake anchoring the new structure — gave the relaunched publication a legitimacy its previous incarnation had sometimes lacked.

Digital-first operations

The 2016 relaunch reimagined the NIT for the digital news cycle. Where the fortnightly newspaper had published on print deadlines, the online NIT publishes daily — rolling news, analysis and features distributed through the website and social channels. The economics are those of the digital news outlet: lower production and distribution costs than print, revenue from digital advertising and partnerships, and an audience built through search, social sharing and direct traffic rather than newsagent sales.

The shift also changed the title's competitive position. As a newspaper, the NIT competed for the limited attention — and advertising — available to print Indigenous media. As a digital daily, it competes in the national online news market, where its Indigenous ownership and specialist remit are differentiators rather than constraints. The publication's social-media presence — including video content on platforms such as TikTok, where its reports on events like the Wadjemup/Rottnest commemorations have found audiences — extends its reach to younger readers the print newspaper never touched.

The Indigenous media landscape

The NIT operates in a distinctive segment of Australian media. The national Indigenous media landscape includes National Indigenous Television (NITV, part of SBS), the Koori Mail (the fortnightly national Indigenous newspaper founded by Owen Carriage, the NIT's own founder), the digital-first IndigenousX platform, and a network of Indigenous community radio stations coordinated through the Community Broadcasting Association. The NIT's point of difference is its daily digital news operation under majority Indigenous ownership — a national Indigenous newsroom publishing in the rhythms of the contemporary news cycle.

The title's survival — through administration, the death of its print edition and the relaunch as a digital service — mirrors the broader transformation of Australian print media, with the added stakes of Indigenous representation. For more than twenty years, through three eras of ownership and two publishing models, the National Indigenous Times has maintained a continuous Indigenous editorial voice in the national conversation.