The Examiner (Tasmania)

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

Overview
The Examiner was first published on 12 March 1842, founded by James Aikenhead. The Reverend John West was instrumental in establishing the newspaper and was the first editorial writer. 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 10 April 1866. This frequency lasted until 16 February the next year. Tri-weekly publication then resumed and continued until 21 December 1877 when the daily paper returned.

Associated publications
The Weekly Courier was published in Launceston by the company from 1901 to 1935. Another weekly paper (evening) The Saturday Evening Express was published between 1924 and 1984 when it transformed into The Sunday Examiner a title which continues to this day.



Ownership
Once owned by ENT Limited, The Examiner was owned by the Rural Press group and is now part of Australian Community Media.

The current editor is Simon Tennant.

Readership
For the 12 months ending September 2008, Roy Morgan Research reports a Saturday readership of 100,000 and a Monday-Friday readership of 84,000.