About Sound Telegraph

Sound Telegraph

The Sound Telegraph is a free weekly newspaper serving Rockingham and the southern coastal suburbs of Perth, Western Australia — the paper for the city named for Cockburn Sound. Published by Seven West Media's regional newspaper group, the Sound Telegraph is the free weekly for the Rockingham district: the Wednesday paper covering the coastal city's news, community and sport. The ACMA Register of eligible news businesses lists soundtelegraph.com.au as the paper's domain.

Overview

Rockingham — the port city on Cockburn Sound, the naval-base town, the southern gateway of metropolitan Perth — is the Sound Telegraph's home: the free weekly for the Sound's shores. Published weekly on Wednesdays, the paper serves Rockingham, Safety Bay, Port Kennedy, Secret Harbour and the surrounding districts: the local news, the community features, the sport, the real estate. As part of The West Australian Regional Newspaper Group — in turn part of Seven West Media, Australia's largest media group — the Sound Telegraph is the West's Rockingham local: the free paper with the corporate parent.

History

The Sound Telegraph is one of the two Community Newspaper Group titles that survived the August 2021 PerthNow rebrand: when Seven West Media retired the Community Newspaper Group brand and relaunched most titles as free PerthNow suburban newspapers, the Sound Telegraph and the Mandurah Coastal Times kept their names — the Rockingham and Peel papers too established to rebrand. The decision — announced by The West Australian's editor-in-chief Anthony De Ceglie in June 2021 — preserved the Sound's identity: the Rockingham paper, by its Rockingham name. The Community Newspaper Group itself — established in 1985, bought out by Seven West Media from News Corp in May 2019 — is the Sound's lineage: the free-weekly tradition, the suburban newsroom model.

Content

The Sound Telegraph publishes the free-weekly mix for Rockingham: the local news, the community features, the sport, the court reports, the real estate. The paper's journalism is the coastal city's week: the Penguin Island little-penguin colony counts, the Safety Bay phone-service complaints, the Kolbe Catholic College incidents, the naval-base news — the Sound's stories, reported for the Sound's readers. The Wednesday rhythm gives the district its midweek paper: the local news, free, on the stands.

Coverage and Audience

The Sound Telegraph's footprint is Rockingham and the southern coastal suburbs: the city centre, Safety Bay, Shoalwater, Port Kennedy, Secret Harbour, Warnbro, Baldivis — the Sound's shoreline communities. Its readers are the district's residents: the naval families of HMAS Stirling, the commuters, the retirees, the young families of the growth suburbs. The free weekly reaches the households the paid press doesn't: the Sound's paper, in every letterbox.

Ownership

The Sound Telegraph is part of The West Australian Regional Newspaper Group, which is part of Seven West Media — Australia's largest media group, owner of the Seven Network, The West Australian, The Sunday Times and the regional and community titles. The paper's sister title is the Southern Telegraph: the Sound-Southern pair, the West's southern-coastal weeklies. The corporate parentage gives the free weekly its resources: the group's printing, the digital platforms, the advertising network.

Digital Presence

The Sound Telegraph's digital home is soundtelegraph.com.au — the domain the ACMA Register lists — carrying the Wednesday paper's Rockingham news online: the penguin counts, the community stories, the Sound's week. The paper's social-media pages — the story tips, the photograph calls, the community engagement — extend the weekly into the daily conversation: Rockingham's news, on the screen. The Sound Telegraph — the name the 2021 rebrand couldn't touch — remains the free weekly of Cockburn Sound: in print Wednesdays and online.

The 2021 Rebrand Survival

The August 2021 PerthNow rebrand — Seven West Media's retirement of the Community Newspaper Group brand, the relaunch of most titles as ten localised PerthNow suburban editions from Yanchep to Coogee — is the Sound Telegraph's defining corporate moment: the paper that kept its name. The announcement — B&T, June 2021 — specified that "residents of Rockingham and Peel will continue to be serviced by the Sound Telegraph and The Mandurah Coastal Times": the two titles too rooted to rebrand. The Sound's survival — alongside its Peel sister — shows the masthead's equity: the Rockingham name, the community's recognition, the brand the readers knew.

The Naval City's Paper

Rockingham's identity — the HMAS Stirling naval base on Garden Island, the fleet-base town, the defence families — shapes the Sound Telegraph's coverage: the naval news, the defence community, the base's economic weight. The paper serves the service families: the postings, the deployments, the community support — the military town's journalism. Alongside the naval city, the Sound covers the port, the industry, the tourism: Penguin Island's little penguins, the dolphin cruises, the coastal lifestyle — the Sound's natural assets, the paper's feature material.

The Growth Corridor

Baldivis, Secret Harbour, Port Kennedy — the Sound's southern suburbs are Perth's growth frontier: the young families, the new estates, the mortgage-belt communities. The Sound Telegraph covers the growth: the schools, the shopping centres, the sporting clubs, the infrastructure demands — the corridor's maturation, reported weekly. The free paper serves the corridor's households: the local news for the new suburbs, the community-building journalism.

The Community Newspaper Group Legacy

The Community Newspaper Group — established 1985, the free-weekly publisher, bought out by Seven West Media from News Corp Australia in May 2019 — is the Sound Telegraph's institutional lineage: the suburban newsroom model, the free-paper economics, the local advertising base. The Group's 2018 digital shift — the communitynews.com.au mastheads, the April 2020 transfer to PerthNow — and the 2021 rebrand are the Sound's corporate history: the free weekly, modernised, preserved. The Sound carries the Group's tradition: the Wednesday paper, the local stories, the community's free press.

The Sound's Stories

The Sound Telegraph's journalism — the penguin-colony reports, the infrastructure complaints, the community incidents, the local achievements — is the coastal city's mirror: the stories only a Rockingham paper tells. The paper's social-media calls — "do you have stories or photographs we might be interested in?" — show the community-sourced model: the readers' tips, the readers' photographs, the readers' paper. The Wednesday issue gathers the district's week: the Sound's news, the Sound's people, the Sound's paper.

The Southern Pair

The Sound Telegraph and the Southern Telegraph — the Sound-Southern pair, the West's southern-coastal weeklies — cover the metropolitan fringe's south: Rockingham to the Peel, the coastal corridor, the growth suburbs. The pair's shared newsroom — the Mandurah address, the regional group — serves the south's communities: the free weeklies, the local news, the corporate resources. For the Sound's readers, the pair is the coverage: Rockingham's paper and its southern sister, the West's weeklies for the south.

The Free Paper's Promise

The Sound Telegraph's free-weekly promise — the Wednesday paper, free to every household, the local news without the paywall — is the community press's compact: the district's stories, available to all. In Rockingham — the naval city, the port, the growth corridor — the free paper is the democratic medium: the pensioners, the young families, the renters — everyone's news. The Sound keeps that promise every Wednesday: the local journalism, the community features, the coastal city's week — free, on the stands, and online at soundtelegraph.com.au.

Cockburn Sound's Chronicle

Each Wednesday, the Sound Telegraph chronicles Cockburn Sound's shores: the naval movements, the port's trade, the penguins' counts, the suburbs' growth, the community's life. The weekly issues — the front pages, the photographs, the advertisements — are Rockingham's archive: the coastal city's modern history, in newsprint. The name the rebrand couldn't touch remains the district's paper: the Sound Telegraph, Rockingham's free weekly, the Sound's own.