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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Ariel Bogle

Papers, polls, PR and politics: meet the powerful lobby firm with a finger in every Tasmanian pie

Brad Stansfield EMRS Tasmania Anna Reynolds Hobart Coalition Guardian Australia
The image shows a map of Tasmania with the mastheads Tasmanian country, The Tasman Gazette and The Northern Midlands Courier.
‘Tasmanian politics and society has been very much marked by very close, not always transparent, relationships,’ says media academic Libby Lester. Composite: Guardian design

Tasmania’s Derwent Valley Gazette is not the kind of publication that generally springs to mind as part of a powerful media empire. For 72 years, it has quietly served the local news needs of the region west of Hobart.

But some in the island state are concerned that ownership of a string of local publications and a polling company has passed to owners that also operate a powerful lobby firm, present political commentary on their own podcast and who have worked on campaigns for the incumbent Liberal government.

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