About Stock & Land

Stock & Land

Stock & Land is a weekly agricultural newspaper published in Melbourne, Victoria, serving the farmers, graziers, and agribusinesses of Victoria and the Riverina. First published on 1 July 1914, it is one of Australia's oldest rural newspapers — the paper of the saleyards, the stud sales, and the cropping districts, now published by Australian Community Media as part of the country's largest agricultural press stable.

Overview

Stock & Land is a weekly newspaper — published in print each week and online daily at stockandland.com.au — covering the Victorian agricultural industry: livestock markets, cropping, agribusiness, rural property, and the policy debates that shape country Australia. Its team of rural journalists provides farmers with the industry and market information they need to make business decisions — a mission the paper has pursued since its origins more than 110 years ago.

The masthead is one of the flagships of ACM Agri, Australian Community Media's agricultural division, which employs more than 60 rural journalists producing agricultural news across five states. A single digital subscription unlocks the full ACM agricultural network: Stock & Land, Queensland Country Life, North Queensland Register, Stock Journal, Farm Weekly, The Land, and the national agricultural news website Farmonline.

History

Stock & Land was first published on Wednesday, 1 July 1914, by proprietor Norman Ferguson. At the time it was dubbed the "official organ of the Associated Stock and Station Agents of Melbourne." It was published three times a week, to coincide with the old Newmarket livestock selling days, and replaced the Melbourne Stock & Station Journal, which for many years had been published weekly to carry reports of livestock sales. The idea of printing three times a week was to ensure farmers had the most up-to-date information possible.

Stock & Land targeted livestock and landholders in Victoria and the Riverina, and initially cost one halfpenny — doubling to one penny in 1918, with a subscription setting readers back five shillings. Norman Ferguson was proud of being the first man from the land to run a newspaper with specific saleyard content, and he outlaid a substantial amount of money to get it off the ground. Having spent most of his life running livestock in Victoria and New South Wales, Ferguson forayed into newspapers at the age of 40, buying the Yea Chronicle in 1900 — a weekly newspaper for farmers and rural communities carrying articles and advertisements relating to the dairy industry, wool, stock sales, and politics. He was still owner of the Yea Chronicle in late 1903 when he was asked to be editor of a new publication, the Bendigo and Northern Districts Stock and Station Journal — also known as the Bendigo Stock Journal — subsidised by the Bendigo stock and station agents and circulating through Bendigo, northern Victoria, and the southern Riverina.

The paper's first edition, in the first week of July 1914, quoted prime bullocks at £14 12s to £16 10s, with the odd sales to £19 — the market reports that were the paper's reason for being, and remain its core. Through the wars, the wool booms and busts, the deregulation eras, and the digital revolution, Stock & Land has reported the livestock and cropping industries of Victoria — growing from the thrice-weekly saleyard sheet to the state-wide weekly of today, covering stud, store, and prime livestock sales from all corners of Victoria.

In 2024, the paper marked 110 years of publication — the 110-year legacy celebrated on its own pages, from the halfpenny thrice-weekly of 1914 to the multimedia agricultural masthead of today. The paper's corporate journey mirrors that of the Australian rural press: from independent proprietors through Rural Press and Fairfax Media to Australian Community Media, acquired by Antony Catalano and Alex Waislitz's interests from Nine Entertainment in April 2019 for $115 million plus $10 million — the 170-newspaper ACM stable including the agricultural mastheads Stock and Land, Queensland Country Life, Stock Journal, Farm Weekly, The Land, North Queensland Register, and Farmonline.

Content

Stock & Land's journalism is the agricultural press at full strength:

• Livestock markets: the stud, store, and prime livestock sales from all corners of Victoria — the saleyard reports, the store cattle and sheep markets, the stud sales, and the price trends that set the industry's week.
• Cropping: the happenings of the cropping sector, its global markets, industry innovations, and the practices of the state's world-class growers.
• Rural property: the farm sales, the land market, and the property news of rural Victoria.
• Industry news: the day-to-day news of the local and national agricultural industry — holding governments and industry bodies to account, covering the innovations and research that buoy the sector, and providing insights into the decisions farmers make each day throughout the year.
• Agribusiness: the companies, the technologies, and the people of the agricultural economy.

The paper's about-us statement captures the mission: through its weekly newspaper and daily website, the masthead's dedicated team of rural journalists provides farmers with vital industry and market information that helps them make important business decisions — something Stock & Land has done since 1914.

Coverage and Audience

Stock & Land serves the agricultural industry of Victoria — and, historically, the Riverina of southern New South Wales: the livestock producers, the croppers, the dairy farmers, the stud breeders, and the agribusiness professionals who read the paper to run their businesses. Its audience is the farming family and the rural enterprise: the readers who check the market reports before the sale, who follow the seasonal conditions, and who rely on the paper's journalism to hold governments and industry bodies to account.

The paper's readership spans the state: from the Western District's sheep and cattle country to the Mallee's cropping districts, from Gippsland's dairy farms to the north-east's beef producers — the full geography of Victorian agriculture.

Ownership

Stock & Land is published by Australian Community Media (ACM), the regional media company owned 50/50 by Antony Catalano and Alex Waislitz's Thorney Investment Group since April 2019. ACM's origins trace to The Land, founded in Sydney in 1911; through Rural Press, Fairfax Regional Media, and the Fairfax–Nine merger of December 2018, the agricultural mastheads arrived in ACM's hands in 2019. The paper's editor is Joely Mitchell, who called the launch of the paper's digital subscription offer a significant milestone in the history of a paper serving Victorian farmers since 1914.

Digital Presence

Stock & Land operates online at stockandland.com.au — its official website, relaunched with a new look and the paper's first digital subscription offer. The subscription unlocks unlimited access to all articles on any device, a searchable directory of upcoming livestock, property, and clearing sales, and a digital version of the weekly paper — and, with a single login, unlimited access to all the other ACM agricultural websites and digital papers: Queensland Country Life, North Queensland Register, Stock Journal, Farmonline, The Land, and Farm Weekly.

The website publishes daily — the agricultural news as it happens, between the weekly print editions — while the print paper continues each week for the readers who want it. From the thrice-weekly saleyard sheet of 1914 to the daily website of today, Stock & Land is the Victorian farmer's paper: the markets, the seasons, and the industry, in print and online.

For Victorian agriculture, Stock & Land remains what Norman Ferguson founded in 1914: the paper of the land — the saleyard reports, the stud sales, and the cropping news, week after week, for 110 years.