The Gloucester Advocate was founded by Frank Townshend, who came from a family of journalists and printers and had previously helped establish newspapers in Cape Town, New Zealand, and Newcastle. He arrived in Gloucester in 1905 and published the first issue on 8 July, timed to the subdivision of the Australian Agricultural Company's 500,000 acre estate. Townshend sold the paper to the Rye family in October 1906, just fifteen months in, and the Ryes ran it for 57 years before selling to Manning River Times Pty Ltd in June 1964. The masthead is now owned by Australian Community Media, the regional publisher held equally by Antony Catalano and Alex Waislitz, which announced in September 2024 that it intended to close the paper. It was still publishing weekly as of March 2025. Today, the Gloucester Advocate is mainly focused on local news, council matters, sport, community events, weather, property, and tributes for the Gloucester valley, supplemented by state, national, and international coverage drawn from other ACM mastheads and Australian Associated Press, from their base in Gloucester, New South Wales, Australia. One interesting fact: The paper's founder ran it for barely a year. Townshend launched the Advocate in July 1905 and sold it fifteen months later, after which a single family, the Ryes, held it for the next 57 years.