While Ms McInerney now works for a new publication established in the aftermath of the closure, she said the Truth, where she worked for about 11 years, always remained close to her heart.<\/p>\n
“I love the building \u2026 it was very old, but it had so much history, and there were so many parts to it that you always enjoyed exploring,” Ms McInerney said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Emily McInerney started as a cadet journalist with the then Barrier Daily Truth and worked her way up the ranks to acting editor before moving on. (ABC News: Oliver Brown)<\/p>\n
“Even being able to see the printing presses was amazing \u2026 you were watching history in action when you worked there.”<\/p>\n
But this printing press, along with everything else within the more than a century-old building, is now being sold or removed entirely.<\/p>\n
BIC president and Barrier Truth board chair Roslyn Ferry said a recent garage sale was the first in many steps to recoup some of its losses.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, we were already looking at our creditors and our debtors, trying to wind up that part of the business,” Ms Ferry said.<\/p>\n
“So, it was decided that we would empty the building as much as possible.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Much of the former newspaper’s still-usable equipment is being sold, with the proceeds going towards paying off creditors. (ABC News: Oliver Brown)<\/p>\n
More valuable as scrap?<\/p>\n
Ms Ferry still hopes to preserve some of the building’s contents, particularly the tens of thousands of printed editions archived there in varying stages of condition.<\/p>\n
Another person interested in the paper’s historical value is Gavin Schmidt, who worked there in various roles over more than 40 years, including as its manager.<\/p>\n
Mr Schmidt said he understood the need to pay back the paper’s creditors, but worries some items will be difficult to sell, particularly the printing press that was installed in the late 70s.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Former employee Gavin Schmidt says the paper’s printing presses were kept in good condition during his time. (ABC News: Callum Marshall)<\/p>\n
“We used to get our press serviced by a Melbourne company, [and] the guy was [telling me] presses are worth nothing because there’s so many of them sitting in deserted buildings in Melbourne, Sydney, and all around the country region,” Mr Schmidt said.<\/p>\n
“He said the only thing they’re worth is as scrap metal \u2026 that was nearly 10 years ago, and it’s even worse now.”Regional decline of in-house printing<\/p>\n
This experience rings true for generational Mildura-based publishers, the Lanyon family, who sold their newspaper interests to national media group SA Today in September.<\/p>\n
Ross Lanyon said their print press, which once printed several mastheads, including the Sunraysia Daily and the Silver City’s newest publication, the Broken Hill Times, has recently been dismantled.<\/p>\n
“Parts of it were sold to other newspapers who acquired it, and a portion was also unfortunately sold as scrap metal because there isn’t a demand for it anywhere in the world at the moment,” he said.<\/p>\n
President of Country Press New South Wales and fourth-generation newsman Edward Higgins estimated “well over 90 per cent” of newspaper publishers have been outsourcing their printing for many years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Edward Higgins’s (right) family currently produces around 20 weekly publications across country NSW and Victoria. (Supplied: Edward Higgins)<\/p>\n
“The investment that you have to put in to have a press is significant, and staffing is also a major challenge,” Mr Higgins said.<\/p>\n
“The second-hand market has [also] reduced \u2026 often you can pick up the presses for not a considerable amount of money, but it’s a very large investment still to install them.”<\/p>\n
Dreams of preservation<\/p>\n
Ms Ferry said she was well aware of the challenge the board faces with selling the press in today’s market.<\/p>\n
However, she said she had not ruled out exploring other options, including the possibility of preserving it as a relic of the city’s history.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Roslyn Ferry says some things in the building have purely historical value, such as the paper’s archives. (ABC News: Oliver Brown)<\/p>\n
“The press still works, it’s just totally immovable at this point, so it would be great if someone wanted to jump in and say, ‘Let’s use [one] part of the building as a museum,'” she said.<\/p>\n
“All those sorts of decisions will be totally up to the affiliated unions, [so] probably nothing’s going to be happening in the next year or two, but we’ll see how we go.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Broken Hill journalist Emily McInerney drives past her old workplace, the Barrier Daily Truth, its peeling paint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[177919,64,63,177918,177917,99,177916,96665,34810,164612,177915,34802],"class_list":{"0":"post-314603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ageing-equipment","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-barrier-daily-truth","12":"tag-barrier-truth","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-closed-newspaper","15":"tag-newspaper","16":"tag-printing-press","17":"tag-regional-media","18":"tag-regional-newspaper","19":"tag-regional-newspapers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}