It is a hard task to sum up the contribution The Examiner has had on Northern Tasmania; particularly in a few hundred words when it has printed billions.
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The fortunes of the region and the newspaper have been linked – almost inextricably – since the 1840s.
Both the region and the paper grew with each other: a symbiotic relationship relying on equal parts skill and good timing.
The Reverend John West, a driving force in the colony, wrote the first editorial piece in The Examiner when it rolled off the press on March 12, 1842.
West’s prose is somewhat foreign now to modern ears as he puts the case for another newspaper in growing Launceston.
“We ask no favour, unless our exertions to instruct and please appear to deserve it,” West wrote.
“Having aspired to fill the acknowledged vacancy, we are resolved to maintain our position with spirit and resolution, to win the confidence ... while looking to the public as our only patron, to recognise it as our only judge.”
Under John West, The Examiner campaigned for the end of convict transportation and need for the colonies to be a federation of states.
Campaigning for change is an ethos that has guided the direction of the masthead from that day to this.
We have pushed for a university in Launceston and the redevelopment of York Park into a nation-leading sports venue.
More recently we have campaigned strongly on education, the relocation of the University of Tasmania’s Newnham campus to Inveresk, and improved water and sewerage infrastructure.
Recently we launched a series examining the long-term plans for Northern Tasmania’s economy, calling for ideas that will future-proof our region, rather than waiting, like cargo cultists in jungle airfields, for some cure-all to drop from the sky.
Like West, we hope you have found some merit in our endeavors.
The accusation of parochialism is sometimes leveled at The Examiner.
We make no apology, however, for arguing the best interests of Northern Tasmania: if not us, then whom?
Self-praise is no recommendation, of course, and we do not hold ourselves in such high regard that we feel ourselves infallible.
We aim to be the voice of our community, but do not consider ourselves its spokesperson.
We aim to reflect its values, but do not consider ourselves its moralist.
The media landscape has changed dramatically and The Examiner has changed with it.
But our drive, our focus, our mission, is to build Northern Tasmania: champion its people and its issues.
That remains as true today as 175 years ago.
- Mark Baker is Fairfax Tasmania managing editor
