About Sorell Times

Sorell Times

The Sorell Times is a free monthly community newspaper published in Sorell, Tasmania, serving the Sorell municipality and Tasmania's south-east. Published on the first Wednesday of every month by Font Publishing (Font Public Relations Tasmania), it is a free-circulation title covering the growing commuter township of Sorell, the Southern Beaches, the southern Coal Valley — including Richmond, Cambridge and Seven Mile Beach — and the communities skirting Greater Hobart's eastern urban edge. First published in 2019, it has established itself as the dedicated local newspaper for one of Tasmania's fastest-growing regions.

Overview

Sorell sits at the gateway to Tasmania's south-east: a historic township on the eastern shore of Pitt Water that has become a commuter hub as Hobart's growth spills eastward, while remaining the service centre for the Southern Beaches, the Tasman Peninsula approaches and the rural south-east. The Sorell Times was created to give this expanding community its own newspaper. As a monthly free title, it follows a different rhythm from the weekly country press: a single substantial edition each month, distributed free, built around council news, community features, sport and local business advertising.

The paper's National Library of Australia catalogue record describes its brief precisely: "The Times centres on the growing commuter township of Sorell, taking in the Southern Beaches, as well as the southern Coal Valley (Richmond, Cambridge, Seven Mile Beach etc.) and skirts the Greater Hobart urban sprawl." That positioning — the commuter belt, the beaches, the historic Coal Valley townships — defines both its editorial territory and its readership: young families in new subdivisions, long-established farming and fishing families, retirees, and the tradies and small-business owners who serve them.

History

The Sorell Times began publication in 2019, published by Font Publishing — the Hobart-based company also known as Font Public Relations (Tasmania) — as a free monthly newspaper for the Sorell district. Its launch filled a gap in the south-east's local media: the region's earlier papers had faded, and the metropolitan dailies covered Sorell only intermittently. From its first issues the paper established the monthly rhythm — published on the first Wednesday of each month — that it maintains today, with issues deposited with the National Library of Australia and available through its national edeposit service.

The paper's early years coincided with a period of intense growth and change in its patch: the Sorell township's expansion, the Southern Beaches' development pressures, the debates over the South East traffic solution and the Hobart Airport's growth, and the COVID-19 pandemic's reshaping of community life. The Times documented these changes month by month, building a readership among the new residents arriving in the district's subdivisions. In November 2025 the paper announced Simon McGuire as its new editor, continuing its development as an established community title. Font Publishing has since expanded its newspaper portfolio, acquiring the weekly rural title Tasmanian Country from News Corp Australia — making the Sorell Times part of a growing independent Tasmanian publishing group.

Programming and Content

The Sorell Times covers the full life of the south-east. Sorell Council is a core beat: the paper carries the council's monthly communications — decisions, works, events, community information, consultation opportunities and the Mayor's report — reflecting the formal role the paper plays in the municipality's civic life, as recognised in the council's own Communication and Engagement Strategy. Beyond the official notices, the paper reports on planning and development debates, roads and infrastructure, and the services — schools, health, public transport — strained by the district's rapid growth.

Community coverage includes the Southern Beaches' surf lifesaving clubs, the sporting competitions in which Sorell teams play — Australian rules football, cricket, netball, soccer — school news, and the community groups, markets and events that mark the district's calendar. The paper follows the fortunes of the region's distinctive places: historic Richmond with its Georgian streetscape and tourism trade, the growing suburbs of Cambridge and Seven Mile Beach near the airport, the beach communities of Dodges Ferry, Carlton and Primrose Sands, and the rural localities of the Coal Valley. Business features and advertising reflect the district's commercial life — the tradies, cafés, real-estate agents and retailers serving a growing population — while the paper's social pages record the community milestones its readers share.

Coverage and Audience

The paper's distribution area centres on Sorell and radiates across the municipality: north to the Southern Beaches and the Tasman Peninsula approaches, west into the southern Coal Valley — Richmond, Cambridge, Seven Mile Beach — and south toward Dunalley and the Forestier Peninsula. This is a region of perhaps twenty thousand people and growing, mixing commuter families working in Hobart, multigenerational local families, retirees drawn by the coastal lifestyle, and the rural communities of the Coal Valley.

As a free monthly delivered across the district, the Times reaches households that the metropolitan dailies reach only as subscribers — giving it a uniquely broad penetration of its patch. Its readers value it as the record of their community's growth: the subdivisions approved, the schools expanded, the roads debated, the teams fielded. The paper also serves the district's newer residents — the young families who have arrived in Sorell's subdivisions from Hobart and interstate — as an orientation guide to their new community: where to play sport, where to volunteer, which school fete to attend, which local business to call. In a fast-growing district where many residents are newcomers, that welcoming function is as important as the news itself. For local businesses, it is the most targeted advertising medium for reaching south-east households, and its free-circulation model gives advertisers the widest possible local audience. The paper's monthly rhythm also suits its patch: where weeklies chase the news cycle, the Times takes the longer view — the development approved last month and what it means, the season's sporting story told in full, the community project followed from announcement to opening. Its readers encounter it as a substantial monthly package rather than a disposable update.

Ownership

The Sorell Times is published by Font Publishing (Font Public Relations Tasmania), the Hobart-based independent publisher. Font Publishing has grown into one of Tasmania's significant independent newspaper publishers, with the Sorell Times as its flagship community title and the Tasmanian Country rural weekly also in its stable following the acquisition from News Corp Australia. The paper is deposited with the National Library of Australia, which catalogues it as a monthly community newspaper of the Sorell region.

Digital Presence

The paper maintains an active social media presence, where it publishes story links, community notices and breaking local news between monthly editions — its Facebook page carries regular updates on everything from football club tributes to powerbox art projects, lotto wins, flight-path consultations and festival revivals. The print edition remains the flagship product: a free monthly newspaper published on the first Wednesday of each month, available across the district. Issues are deposited with the National Library of Australia through its edeposit service, preserving the paper's record of the south-east's growth for researchers and future readers. As the district continues to grow — new subdivisions, new schools, new roads — the Times' monthly editions accumulate into a chronicle of a community in rapid transition, written by the people living through it. For a paper founded in 2019, it has already become part of the district's civic furniture: the monthly edition on the kitchen table, the council notices read, the local sport followed — the small, regular rituals by which a fast-growing community recognises itself.