About News of the Area - Port Stephens

News of the Area - Port Stephens

Overview

News of the Area - Port Stephens, published as the Port Stephens News Of The Area, is a free weekly newspaper serving the Port Stephens local government area on the New South Wales coast north of Newcastle. It is one of the local editions of News of the Area, the independent newspaper group published by Myall Coast Communications Pty Ltd from Raymond Terrace, which lies within the Port Stephens district itself. The Port Stephens edition is a genuinely distinct masthead: the Australian Press Council's register of constituent publications lists the Port Stephens News of The Area separately from the group's Coffs Coast, Myall Coast and Nambucca Valley editions, and the Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI) named Port Stephens among the separate mastheads published by Myall Coast Communications in its June 2024 Australian News Data Report. The edition was in publication by February 2020, when its printed edition was being published in digital flipbook form, and PIJI's May 2021 mapping of the group already counted Port Stephens among its established titles. From its base in the district, the paper covers the towns of the Port Stephens peninsula and hinterland, including Nelson Bay, Salamander Bay, Shoal Bay, Fingal Bay, Soldiers Point, Anna Bay, Corlette, Medowie, Karuah and Raymond Terrace, in print each week and online through the group website.

History

The News of the Area name has a long association with the Port Stephens district. The group began as a single community paper serving Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest, at the mouth of the Myall River on the northern shore of Port Stephens, and local-history sources for the district quote editions of a paper called News of the Area — known locally by its acronym, Nota — reporting Port Stephens news as early as 1985, when its edition of 1 July that year covered debate over the future of the Nelson Bay inner lighthouse. As the group grew into a multi-edition publisher, the southern shore of Port Stephens acquired an edition of its own. The Port Stephens News Of The Area was publishing by February 2020, and it has appeared continuously since: digital editions of the paper dated January 2023, April 2024 and December 2024 are held in the group's online archive, and PIJI's reporting on the group in May 2021 listed Port Stephens alongside its Myall Coast and Coffs Coast titles before the Nambucca Valley edition was added that month.

The edition publishes into a district with a long newspaper tradition. The Port Stephens Examiner, the long-established Australian Community Media weekly, also serves the area, and the two papers appear side by side in Port Stephens Council's advertising schedules. The News of the Area edition has grown with its group: PIJI recorded the company opening a Camden Haven edition in June 2024 and a Port Macquarie edition in May 2025, the latter the eighth outlet opened by the group, while the Port Stephens paper continued its weekly publication. In July 2026 the edition reported on editorial change across the group, carrying an article by Andrea Ferrari, dated 24 July 2026, announcing a new editor for the News Of The Area newspaper group — a sign of the edition's continuing role as one of the group's established mastheads.

Programming and Content

The Port Stephens News Of The Area covers the local government, community and sporting life of the Port Stephens district. Its pages carry council and community news from across the peninsula and the Raymond Terrace hinterland, together with the dense round of club sport that structures local life: netball at Nelson Bay, where it reported the new-look Nelson Bay netball committee's plans for the season; the Port Stephens Pickleball Club, whose players' medal-winning performances at a regional tournament at Taree it covered in a report by Chris Karas; the Dave Matthews Memorial Seniors tennis tournament hosted by the Nelson Bay Tennis Club, which it reported as drawing some 219 players to 74 events across courts from Nelson Bay to Fingal Bay and Boat Harbour; lawn bowls, including the Raymond Terrace Bowling Club; and women's rugby league and rugby union, including the Nelson Bay Gropers' women's side. Its coverage of Raymond Terrace includes the town's Dawn Service and Anzac Day commemorations, reported in successive years.

Some general-news content is shared across the group's editions, as media monitoring shows: a January 2025 story on Medicare and bulk-billing by Poppy Johnston appeared on page 15 of the Port Stephens print edition, and a story first published in the Nambucca Valley edition that month was also reported in the Port Stephens paper. Alongside that shared material, the edition's local reporting, photography and sports coverage are specific to Port Stephens, produced for the district's readers. The paper is also part of the district's civic fabric: EcoNetwork Port Stephens named the Port Stephens News of the Area among the sponsors of its 2025 Sustainable Living Festival, the community's principal environmental event.

Audience and Reach

The edition serves the Port Stephens local government area, a coastal district of holiday towns, retirement communities and the growing centre of Raymond Terrace, whose population swells in the summer season with visitors to Nelson Bay and the Tomaree Peninsula. A Port Stephens Council advertising document from May 2025, recording the placement of development-application notices in the paper's print edition of 15 May 2025, listed the paper with a circulation figure of 10,000, alongside the district's other print outlets; that figure is the council document's, recorded at that date, and is not an audited circulation. As a free newspaper the edition is supported by local advertising and distributed across the district, and its readership is extended online, where its stories are published on the group's website and circulated by local community organisations. Together with the Port Stephens Examiner, it is one of the district's two local print newspapers, and its free distribution gives it a particular presence in the peninsula's towns, where it is a sponsor and chronicler of community events.

Digital Presence

The group's website, newsofthearea.com.au, is the shared digital home of the News of the Area editions, and the Port Stephens edition's stories are published there under its own masthead. The group also publishes its printed editions in digital flipbook form, and the Port Stephens archive includes editions dated February 2020, January 2023, April 2024 and December 2024. The edition's reporting circulates widely through news-aggregation and monitoring services, which recorded its print pages in January 2025 and its Nelson Bay and Raymond Terrace coverage through 2026, and through the social media channels of the clubs and community groups it covers.

Ownership and Organisation

The Port Stephens News Of The Area is published by Myall Coast Communications Pty Ltd, an independent local media company based at Raymond Terrace, within the edition's own district. The company takes its name from the Myall Coast, where the group's first paper began, and it is not part of either of Australia's large regional chains, Australian Community Media or News Corp Australia. It was among the successful applicants under the Australian Government's Regional Grant Opportunity in 2019, and PIJI classifies News of the Area as an independent weekly newspaper group. The National Library of Australia records Myall Coast Communications, of Raymond Terrace, as the publisher of the group's editions. In its June 2024 Australian News Data Report, PIJI recorded that the company published four local mastheads besides its then-newest Camden Haven outlet — in the Coffs Coast, Myall Coast, Nambucca Valley and Port Stephens — all under the News of the Area banner, confirming the Port Stephens paper's standing as a distinct edition. The edition is a constituent publication under the Australian Press Council's standards scheme, listed in its own right in the Council's register, and the group is a member of Country Press Australia. Like its sister editions, it is produced with a mix of staff reporting and locally based contributors.

Contact and Availability

The Port Stephens News Of The Area is published weekly in print and online for Nelson Bay, Raymond Terrace and the Port Stephens district, and is available free. Its stories appear on the group website, newsofthearea.com.au, and its printed editions are published in digital form in the group's online archive. Its publisher, Myall Coast Communications Pty Ltd, is based at Raymond Terrace, New South Wales; directories list the group's advertising contact email as media@newsofthearea.com.au.