About Scone Advocate

Scone Advocate

Overview

The Scone Advocate is a weekly newspaper serving Scone, Aberdeen and Murrurundi in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales. Founded on 7 October 1887 — the same year Scone was declared a municipality — it is one of the Hunter region's long-running country mastheads, and it is owned today by Australian Community Media (ACM). ACM's current brand page for the title lists a Thursday publication day, and the paper's website, sconeadvocate.com.au, publishes local and regional reporting alongside material from across the ACM network. The Advocate covers the Upper Hunter Shire, a rural district whose economy rests on thoroughbred horse breeding — Scone promotes itself as Australia's Horse Capital — as well as cattle production, saleyards and an abattoir, with many residents also employed by the coal mines and power stations of the nearby Hunter Valley. The paper is produced today as part of ACM's Upper Hunter operation, working alongside the Muswellbrook Chronicle, the Singleton Argus and the free Hunter Valley News.

History

The Advocate began publication on 7 October 1887 as a weekly broadsheet under its founder, Arthur "Advocate" Smith. Five years later it became a twice-weekly publication, and in 1898 the paper bought its first typewriter — a small marker of the technological changes that would repeatedly reshape the business. Smith remained at the helm until his death in 1933, when his son Arthur Fleming "Tod" Smith succeeded him. The paper began building a new home in 1935 and moved into premises in Kelly Street; its original offices, at the corner of Liverpool and Guernsey Streets, were destroyed by fire in 1942. A year later John Arthur "Jack" Smith replaced his father as editor, continuing the family's three-generation run.

In 1954 the publication days changed to Tuesdays and Fridays, and the paper was sold to a locally owned company, Scone Advocate Limited, with local businessman J.M. "Mick" Flint as managing director. Editor Vern Hennessy departed later that year and the paper switched to tabloid format. Between 1957 and 1975 the Advocate had three editors — Joseph Charles "Joe" Court, William E.M. "Mac" Abbott and James "Jim" Brundson. In 1974 the newspaper was purchased by Western Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of the Packer family's Consolidated Press Group. Mike Pritchard was appointed editor in 1975 and served until 1990, one of the paper's longest editorial tenures. In 1976 the paper became a weekly again, published on Wednesdays.

An attempt in 1982 to relaunch the title as a regional newspaper, The Valley Advocate, with wider circulation proved unsuccessful — the paper was given away free outside Scone while local residents were still charged for it — and in 1984 the Scone Advocate banner was restored with a Thursday publication day. That year the Packer-controlled Regional Publishers Pty Ltd merged with the McClintock family's Upper Hunter Newspapers to form Upper Hunter Publishers Pty Ltd, and the paper was published off-site in Muswellbrook; its commercial printing division was sold to a private company in 1986. In 1987 Rural Press Limited purchased the group, including the Advocate, and printing moved to the Maitland Mercury site.

The 1990s brought a succession of editors — Anthony "Tony" Newman from 1990, Annella "Nella" Powell in 1993 and Rhonda Turner in 1994 — and a modernisation of production: the paper launched its first complimentary magazine for Scone Horse Week in 1991, in 1996 it was compiled on site for the first time using the QuarkXPress system, colour was used regularly from 4 December 1997, and in 2000 the Advocate acquired a digital camera and launched its website. Rural Press sold the paper's long-time headquarters in 2000 and the business moved into rented premises in 2001. Printing moved again in 2005, this time to Tamworth at the Northern Daily Leader site. In 2007 Fairfax Media acquired Rural Press, and in October that year the Advocate celebrated its 120th anniversary. Early issues of the paper, from 1887 to 1954, have been digitised by the National Library of Australia and are available through Trove. In 2019 Fairfax's regional publishing arm, including the Advocate, became Australian Community Media. Like other ACM non-daily titles, the Advocate's print edition was suspended during the COVID-19 disruption of April to June 2020, when ACM halted production of its non-daily newspapers and four of its print sites.

Programming and Content

The Advocate's editorial mix is that of a traditional Upper Hunter weekly: Upper Hunter Shire Council news and decisions, courts and police, rural and agricultural reporting for the district's cattle and farming producers, and extensive coverage of the thoroughbred industry that defines Scone — horse sales, racing, the Scone Horse Festival period and the equine businesses clustered around the town. Community news, school items, sport — rugby league, cricket, racing and local competition — obituaries, and coverage of Aberdeen and Murrurundi round out the local content. The paper drew national attention at the end of the 1990s when the ABC's Media Watch criticised its graphic coverage of a murder in Aberdeen; the editor at the time, Rhonda Turner, defended the paper's reporting. Its lighter moments travelled too — articles from the Advocate were featured on the television game show Don't Forget Your Toothbrush. Online, local stories sit alongside state, national and world material supplied through the ACM network and wire services.

Audience and Reach

The Advocate circulates in Scone and the surrounding Upper Hunter Shire communities, including Aberdeen and Murrurundi. ACM describes the title as providing depth and spread of local news coverage in its area and points to its close involvement with the community; the company measures the brand's digital audience within its IPSOS iris reporting, with audience data published for the February to April 2026 period. The district the paper serves combines a stable rural population with growth driven by the horse industry, agriculture and workers drawn to Hunter Valley mining and energy employment, and the Advocate's readership is drawn from those farming, equine, business and family communities across the shire.

Digital Presence

The Advocate launched its first website in 2000, and its current site, sconeadvocate.com.au, operates within ACM's standard regional template. Monitoring records show the site carrying dated items under the Scone Advocate masthead through 2026, mixing Upper Hunter reporting with ACM network content and Australian Associated Press wire copy — the standard pattern for ACM's smaller mastheads. ACM's brand page for the title reports its digital audience through IPSOS iris and lists the Thursday publication day, and the site carries the subscription and advertising services common to ACM's regional portfolio.

Ownership and Organisation

The Scone Advocate is owned by Australian Community Media. Its ownership lineage runs from founder Arthur Smith and his family, through Scone Advocate Limited from 1954, Western Newspapers in 1974 and Upper Hunter Publishers in 1984, to Rural Press in 1987; Rural Press merged into Fairfax Media in 2007, and Fairfax's regional arm became ACM in 2019. Editorial production today sits within ACM's Hunter and Upper Hunter newsroom structure rather than in a standalone Scone office: industry directory listings record a senior journalist, Louise Nichols, filing across the Scone Advocate, the Muswellbrook Chronicle, the Singleton Argus and Hunter Valley News. No current Scone-based editor is named in the sources consulted for this profile, and none is asserted here.

Contact and Availability

The Scone Advocate is published by Australian Community Media, with a Thursday publication day listed in ACM's current brand information. Its website is sconeadvocate.com.au. Reference listings record the paper's historic headquarters at 206 Kelly Street, Scone — a building Rural Press sold in 2000, after which the paper operated from rented premises — so readers should use the website and ACM's published contact channels for current newsroom and advertising enquiries rather than the historic address.