Type Weekly newspaper Language English | Owner(s) Fairfax Media | |
Founder(s) Alfred Edward South and Charles Meyrick Founded July 9, 1898; 118 years ago (1898-07-09) City Port Pirie, South Australia | ||
The Recorder was a newspaper published in Port Pirie, South Australia as Port Pirie Recorder and North Western Mail between 1898 and 1918, and The Recorder from 1919.
History
The town, later city, of Port Pirie had two newspapers, The Port Pirie Advocate, published weekly from 21 March 1885, and The Port Pirie Standard, subtitled and Barrier Advertiser, published weekly from 4 January 1889. They amalgamated to form The Port Pirie Recorder, subtitled and North Western Mail, first published on 9 July 1898, appearing on Saturday and Wednesday mornings, printed and published jointly by Alfred Edward South (1861 – 1 January 1934) of the Advocate, and Charles Meyrick (died 3 January 1937) of the Standard. Their office was on Alexander Street, Port Pirie.
Meyrick withdrew from the partnership around 1903 and on 6 April 1914 the paper became a daily. In 1919 South sold the paper to James Edward Davidson (died 1 June 1930) and it was renamed The Recorder. A few months later, a fire caused considerable damage to its Ellen Street premises, but with help from a local jobbing printer publication continued, albeit in a more modest form. Davidson went on to found News Limited, with The Recorder one of its stable, which included the Adelaide News, The Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) and Perth's Daily News.
On 1 December 1931 the paper was sold to Horace Yelland (died 27 August 1948) (previously editor of The News and The Sunday Mail) and his company Recorder Proprietary Limited. On 14 August 1934 disaster once again struck when much of Port Pirie, The Recorder's premises included, was inundated by flood. Again, publication was reduced to a single sheet but four days later had returned to full size with graphic photos and descriptions of the episode.
For many years the Recorder's chief competitor was the Port Pirie Advertiser, published by Samuel W. Osborne. After that paper ceased publication in the mid 1920s, Sam Osborne contributed to The Recorder a weekly column "Personal Reminiscences", which continued until 1950, a few years before his death.
The paper's worst disaster struck on 22 January 1941 when Pirie's Central Mission was destroyed by fire, which spread to the Recorder's offices causing immense damage. The paper went to three issues per week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which continued to at least 1955.
The Recorder is now published once a week,Thursday, and is part of the Fairfax Rural Press network.