The Examiner (Tasmania)

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The Examiner is the daily newspaper of the city of Launceston and north-eastern Tasmania, Australia.

[edit] Overview

The Examiner was first published on 12 March 1842, founded by James Aikenhead. Its first editor was the Reverend John West. At first it was a weekly publication (Saturdays). The Examiner expanded to Wednesdays six months later. In 1853, the paper was changed to tri-weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays), and first began daily publication on 21 December 1877. The Sunday Examiner began publication in 1984.

Once owned by ENT Limited, The Examiner is now owned by the Rural Press group.

In 2005, it won the Media Watch (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) prize entitled, the Campbell Reid Perpetual Trophy for the Brazen Recycling of Other People's Work, for its four pages, including the front page, of completely copied material from a joint Gunn's and Tasmanian Government advertising feature put together to promote the proposed pulp mill at Longreach. The paper also failed to mention any alternative view points in its four page special. The award is more commonly known as "The Barra".

The newspaper is warmly referred to as "The Exaggerator" by local readership.

Famous former staff include respected TV and radio journalist Charles Woolley, cross-media sport afficianado Mark Wilton and ZOO Weekly sub-editor and political satirist Luke Edmunds.

The current editor is Fiona Reynolds, who was appointed in May 2008.