The
Geelong Advertiser was initially edited by
James Harrison, a Scottish emigrant, who had arrived in
Sydney in 1837 to set up a
printing press for the English company Tegg & Co. Moving to
Melbourne in 1839, he found employment with
John Pascoe Fawkner, as a compositor, and later editor, of Fawkner's
Port Phillip Patriot. When Fawkner acquired a new press, Harrison offered him £30 for the original press, and started Geelong's first newspaper. The first edition of the
Geelong Advertiser, which originally appeared weekly, was published on Saturday 21 November 1840, edited by 'James Harrison and printed and published for John Pascoe Fawkner (sole proprietor) by William Watkins...' Its first editorial offered the following
doggerel: The first edition under this title published on 28 May 1845. In 1860 the
Advertiser was purchased by Alfred Douglass, but Harrison continued as editor until the end of March 1865, when he and Daniel Harrison left to found the
Register. Harrison was succeeded by Westfield as co-editor with G. R. Rippon (subsequently proprietor of the
Hamilton Spectator). In June 1866 Hicks succeeded Westfield and held the position for a year, when Horatio "Horace" Rowcroft became editor, and held that position till the
Register amalgamated with the
Advertiser in August 1869, and Berry served as editor for a considerable time. The newspaper did not feature news on the front page until 21 June 1924, coinciding with the inauguration of a new printing press. Before that time the front page was devoted to
classified advertising. Trials of a
tabloid-sized paper were made in 2000, when a Sunday edition was printed for the
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. ==See also==