The Riverland is situated 250kms north east of Adelaide with a population of approximately 30,000. The Murray Pioneer was established in 1892 and serves the Riverland and Northern Mallee area of South Australia.

The Riverland is a popular tourist destination with numerous fleets of houseboats and a very warm climate to compliment the area as a haven for water sports and river recreation. 

The Murray Pioneer is one of SA’s oldest newspapers. It is part of the Taylor-owned Murray Pioneer group, with sister newspapers in SA’s Riverland at Gawler (The Bunyip), and Pinnaroo (The Border Times).

HISTORY

  

THE MURRAY PIONEER, first known as The Renmark Pioneer, was established in 1892, and located in Thirteenth Street.

The first copy of The Renmark Pioneer rolled off the machine on April 9, 1892. It was a chromograph production printed from a hand-written original. From that date it was published weekly.

The paper was the brainchild of the co-founders A.P. Corrie and the Rev. J.G. Jenkin whose office was a tent in Thirteenth St where they housed their “press.”

It was a weekly newspaper until 1982, when it changed to a bi-weekly, printed on Tuesdays and Fridays. Its current circulation is about 6400 copies. 

For several years the paper was printed in a new premise in Fifteenth Street and then at a site near the Renmark Hotel. In 1910, it was relocated to Ral Ral Avenue and is still published from there today. Its named changed to The Murray Pioneer in 1913, reflecting the regional coverage of the publication.

Greatly accelerated development of the irrigation area following World War I led to an expansion of the paper with the formation of the present company, The Murray Pioneer Pty. Ltd. in 1921, with Mr. H.S. Taylor as governing director and editor – a position he held until his death in 1932.

The Taylor family has been prominent in Country Press SA Inc., with four generations serving on the executive and four family members serving as president – W. Gilmore, Darnley, Paul and Ben. Mr Ben Taylor currently holds the position of chairman and managing director of the Taylor Group of Newspapers.

The well-equipped offices and outer walls of the present building were built in 1960 and several alterations and additions have been made since that time.

In 1978, the Cossar press, which had printed the paper for about 18 years, was replaced by a three-unit Goss Community web-offset press, capable of printing 24 pages in one run, at a speed of 14,000 copies an hour. The paper became fully paginated with colour and mono pages sent direct to an imagesetter.

In 2006, a further expansion of the press took place with the purchase of a Tensor ‘4 High’ unit from Chicago, USA. This required a larger pressroom and a substantial renovation and enlargement of the premises took place.

At the same time a computer to plate (CTP) unit was purchased which replaced the imagesetter. An identical unit was purchased at the same time by sister company JC Irving & Co enabling valuable back up for both businesses in times of breakdowns.

This further simplified the printing process enabling pages to be built on computer and sent in fours to the CTP unit to produce a press ready plate.

A year later another Tensor ‘4 High’ unit was purchased which is today combined with the first Tensor unit and two Goss mono units.

With the introduction of the world-wide web and internet service provider (ISP) ‘Riverland Internet’ was established late in 1995. It became the first ISP in the Riverland and The Murray Pioneer became the first paper in South Australia to have an online presence.

All six of the Taylor Group of Newspapers are printed on the presses at Renmark along with several other contract print jobs.

The Murray Pioneer has won numerous Country Press SA Inc. awards, including best front page four times (1998, 1999, 2006, 2008), and excellence in journalism twice (1999, 2010).

  

It has also won best supplement twice, best sports picture and best editorial writing.