Service newspapers chopped in half

The newspapers of the Royal Australian Navy, Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force have had their publication frequency chopped in half.

Announced as a brief, facts-only, news story on the Defence News web site yesterday, 30 July 2026, the historic, paper-based news journals will now be published once per month, instead of every pay day [and possibly only 10 or 11 issues per year?].

ARMY Newspaper, which has been published continuously since 10 September 1959 – with yours truly counted among its proud past-staff cohort – is the senior of the three mastheads to be affected, just two months shy of its 67th birthday.

While this news came as a shock, the writing was on the wall for some time, however, with the printed newspaper for the most part simply reflecting what was already published on line days, weeks and even months before.

Another symptom of this decline was the regurgitation of the ‘strategic messaging’ that maligns most of Defence’s current on-line reporting – gone the days of front-line reporting by staff reporters, recounting the activities of soldiers, sailors and aviators from the low-level perspective.

Once proudly sub-titled “The soldiers’ newspaper” [and vigorously defended by staff], using plain English with writing standards aimed at a corporal-level reader, ARMY Newspaper is now officially sub-titled “The official newspaper of the Australian Army“, full of strategic-level messaging, key talking points and “abstract, jargon-heavy, managerial language”, which was roundly denounced [but not policed] by Deputy Chief of Army Major General Chris Smith [the official ‘owner’ of the newspaper] just last year.

The long-term future of the three newspapers in their new monthly print cycle must surely be in doubt now too.

Following a previous change of similar magnitude, the printed, glossy, popular ARMY Magazine (1989-2002) was removed from newsagents’ shelves, and died an undignified death within a year in its new newspaper-centre-spread format.

Today ARMY Magazine is barely discoverable via Google search, with this shop in Brisbane, this [outdated and incorrect] mention by the AWM, and in my own backstory here, the few mentions found today.

Brian Hartigan
CONTACT Editor-at-large

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