The Rural City of Horsham and West Wimmera Shire are neighbouring local government areas in Western Victoria. Horsham is the major centre of the Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion, and is approximately 300km northwest of Melbourne. Both areas border the Shire of Southern Grampians, which was sampled in August 2022.

Most coverage across the two LGAs comes from Horsham-based news outlets: the ABC Wimmera newsroom and newspapers the Horsham Times, Weekly Advertiser and Australian Community Media’s Wimmera Mail Times. Two smaller outlets provide hyperlocal news: the Progress Press in Natimuk and the Free Press & Times, a newspaper in Nhill, Hindmarsh and Kaniva, West Wimmera.

The Horsham RA1 broadcast area covers both LGAs, with ACE Radio Broadcasters providing local radio news, alongside publishing the Advertiser. For television, Horsham and West Wimmera are within the Regional Victoria TV1 and Western Victoria TV1 broadcast license areas.

Few changes have been observed in this region. Australian Community Media briefly suspended the Wimmera Mail-Times during early COVID in April 2020; it had been reopened by the end of June. In the interim, the Horsham Times was opened by Wimmera Mallee News, publisher of the Warracknabeal Herald. In February 2023, the Kowree (West Wimmera) Advocate, an Edenhope-based newspaper, closed.