The Leader Community Newspaper group publishes 20 digital titles covering metropolitan Melbourne.
The group was downsized in 2016 and in 2020. Prior to this, it published 33 weekly print titles which were delivered to over 1.4 million homes.[1] In early 2016, it had 569,000 digital unique audience each month.[1]
In the early 1850s George Mott arrived in the Colony of Victoria and began work as a journalist with the Melbourne Argus.
In 1854 he started publishing newspapers in the Victorian goldfields near Beechworth and Chiltern. George Mott's two sons commenced publishing newspapers in Albury and one brother's branch of the family until recently (2005) published The Border Mail in that town.
The other brother, Decimus Mott, left the Murray area in 1924 and, with his sons, took over the established Northcote and Preston Leader (first published in 1888). From this paper, the Leader Community Newspaper group grew into its present stable of 33 separate mastheads.
In 1986 the group was sold to The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd. With the acquisition of The Herald and Weekly Times by News Corporation later that same year, the Leader Newspaper group became a part of News Limited Community Newspapers with a total of 95 publications throughout Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Tasmania.
In 2016, the group ceased producing seven newspapers.[2] In April 2020, News Corporation announced that it would only be producing digital editions of newspapers, which required a subscription, from 6 April with printing suspended due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.[3][4] In May 2020, News Corporation announced that it would cease producing seven newspapers even in digital editions from 29 June.[5][6]