About Warrnambool Weekly

Warrnambool Weekly

Overview

The Warrnambool Weekly is a free weekly newspaper serving Warrnambool, the coastal city that anchors Victoria's south-west. It is produced by Western District Newspapers, the independent, Camperdown-based publisher known locally as WD News, whose stable of community newspapers covers the towns of the Western District. The Weekly gives Warrnambool a free, locally produced print paper alongside the city's paid daily, The Standard, which is published by Australian Community Media. Warrnambool City Council's city information page lists The Standard and the Warrnambool Weekly as the city's print newspapers, and the title appears in the Australian Press Council's constituent publications list of September 2026. The federal communications regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), records the Warrnambool Weekly on its Register of Eligible News Businesses as one of the newspaper mastheads of Western District Newspapers Pty Ltd.

History

No launch date for the Warrnambool Weekly is published in the governing records consulted for this profile — neither the ACMA register, the Press Council's constituent list nor the publisher's own announcements state when the title began — so no founding year is asserted here. The documented history of the paper is the recent history of its publisher. Western District Newspapers publishes from its head office in Camperdown, and in January 2025 the company changed hands in a staff buyout: long-serving employees Jodie Welsh and Stewart Esh took over the business earlier that month, a change the publisher announced in its own papers on 22 January 2025 under the headline "WD News under new ownership". The announcement listed the Warrnambool Weekly among the group's publications, alongside the Camperdown Chronicle, the Cobden Timboon Coast Times, the Terang Express, the Mortlake Dispatch and the Western District Farmer. Stewart Esh first joined the business in 1988 as an apprentice compositor and was appointed managing editor in 1999; Jodie Welsh was first employed as a journalist and photographer in 2006 and later also took on the role of advertising manager. Both new owners live locally, and in the announcement they said they were proud to keep the local business local: "We value our advertisers and our readers and are proud to keep this local business, local," they said. "Newspapers play a vital role in local communities and we are excited about the future." The group's federal registration predates the buyout: Western District Newspapers Pty Ltd was entered on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses on 13 September 2024, with the Warrnambool Weekly named among its mastheads. The Weekly thus sits within a small, independently owned Western District network at a time when most comparable Victorian country titles belong to large chains — Warrnambool's own daily, The Standard, is an Australian Community Media title, and the city's other local media are radio stations (the ACE Radio commercial stations 3YB and Coast FM, community station 3WAY FM and ABC South West Victoria) and relayed television services, of which only WIN produces a local news bulletin.

Programming and Content

The Warrnambool Weekly is a general local newspaper for the city and its surrounding district. On Western District Newspapers' online editions platform, the title is organised into general news, community, council and sport sections, which reflects the standard mix of a Western District community weekly: Warrnambool City Council and Moyne Shire news, community events and achievements, pictorial coverage of local life, and the district's sporting competitions. In its January 2025 ownership announcement, the publisher described the group's purpose as providing "the latest news, pictorial coverage and up-to-date information to keep local communities well informed", and the Weekly applies that formula to Warrnambool itself — the largest community in the group's territory, and the one place in its patch where it publishes a free paper rather than a paid masthead. Because The Standard covers Warrnambool as a daily, the Weekly's role is complementary: a free weekly round-up of council, community and sporting news for readers who pick it up around town rather than subscribing to a daily.

Audience and Reach

The Warrnambool Weekly is free. The media summary in Wikipedia's Warrnambool article describes it as a free weekly newspaper produced by Western District Newspapers that "is supplied every Friday to several local businesses" — a pickup distribution model under which copies are placed with shops and businesses around the city each Friday rather than home-delivered or sold through newsagents. No audited circulation or readership figure for the title is published in the governing records consulted, and none is claimed here. Its audience is the population of Warrnambool and the surrounding district, the same community served by the group's paid titles in nearby towns such as Camperdown, Cobden, Timboon, Terang and Mortlake. The title is also listed by Country Press Australia, the association for regional and independent publishers, among the publications covered in its submission to the federal News Bargaining Incentive consultation.

Digital Presence

The paper's own website is warrnamboolweekly.com.au, the address recorded for the title on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses. Western District Newspapers also carries the Weekly on its shared online editions platform, WD News, where the title sits alongside the group's other mastheads with its general news, community, council and sport sections open to readers online. The group's publishing operation is otherwise print-centred: Western District Newspapers operates its own printing press in Camperdown, described by the publisher as one of very few remaining printing presses in Victoria, and as well as printing its own six publications it contract-prints newspapers for other small independent publishers, including the Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, North Central News and the Casterton News.

Ownership and Organisation

The Warrnambool Weekly is owned and published by Western District Newspapers Pty Ltd (ABN 74 004 068 759), an independent Victorian company based in Camperdown. Since January 2025 the company has been owned by Jodie Welsh and Stewart Esh, the two long-serving staff members who bought the business that month; Esh, whose career with the company began as an apprentice compositor in 1988, has been its managing editor since 1999, and he is the contact named for the company on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses. That register, dated 13 September 2024, records five newspaper mastheads for the company — the Camperdown Chronicle, the Cobden Timboon Coast Times, the Terang Express, the Mortlake Dispatch and the Warrnambool Weekly. The publisher's own January 2025 announcement listed a sixth publication, the Western District Farmer, an agricultural paper, alongside the five newspapers. The company is a member publisher of the Australian Press Council, and the Warrnambool Weekly appears in the council's September 2026 list of constituent publications. The ACMA register on which the company appears is the federal register of news businesses eligible under Australia's news media bargaining framework; Western District Newspapers' entry records the company as a registered news business with Stewart James Esh as its contact, and registration is one of the formal markers that distinguishes an operating, accountable news publisher in the current regulatory system.

Contact and Availability

The Warrnambool Weekly is available free each Friday from participating local businesses in Warrnambool, and it can be read online at warrnamboolweekly.com.au and through the Western District Newspapers online editions platform. The publisher's head office is at 124 Manifold Street, Camperdown, Victoria, and the group's telephone number is (03) 5593 1888. The ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses names Stewart James Esh as the registered contact for Western District Newspapers Pty Ltd.