Liberal-linked Tasmanian public relations firm Font PR shuts

They have represented the Liberals in election campaigns, lobbied on behalf of organisations like Airbnb, Master Builders and the Catholic Church, own local media outlets, a polling company and even run a podcast.

Font PR's reach in Tasmania, including throughout the state government, is extensive.

But now, the public relations, media and lobbying firm is disbanding.

Revealing the news on the FontCast last week, managing director Becher Townshend said he would be retiring from the public relations business and wrapping up the Font PR brand.

His partners, former Liberal staffers Brad Stansfield and Danielle Mckay, will remain in the game — although they are going their separate ways.

Mr Stansfield will be running the marketing and polling firm EMRS.

Font purchased the company late last year, headed up by Mary Massina.

Ms Massina was the former head of the Macquarie Point Development Corporation and before that, led the Property Council in Tasmania, and is also Mr Townshend's wife.  

With Ms Massina leaving EMRS, Mr Stansfield will step in and has plans to expand its offerings.

"To include PR and GR [government relations] and campaigning and whatever else takes my fancy, so to speak," Mr Stansfield said.

"So I'm still going to be running the same tricks out of a different letterhead in many respects. I'll still be around, I'll still be doing things.

Mr Stansfield also believes there will be a "podcast of some description" in the future, too.

From public relations to newspapers

Font has been somewhat of a force in Tasmania, dominating the public relations, crisis media and lobbying landscape with various ties to the Liberals who've been in power for more than a decade.

It was Mr Townshend who developed the 'Love Your Local' campaign during the 2018 Tasmanian election, which was viewed as instrumental in the Liberals' re-election.

Later that year, former Liberal staffers Brad Stansfield, who was former premier Will Hodgman's chief of staff for eight years, and Brad Nowland, who worked for both Mr Hodgman and his successor Peter Gutwein, joined Font as partners.

Font would go on to expand, launching its podcast and buying up local newspapers around the state at a time when smaller regional mastheads were facing increasing pressures and closures.

Font Publishing, of which Mr Stansfield is the managing editor, currently owns eight titles, including TasCountry, the Derwent Valley Gazette and the Sorell Times.

It claims to reach more than 100,000 Tasmanians and describes itself as "Tasmania's largest independent, locally-owned publisher".

As well as public relations, Font also had an extensive list of clients that it lobbied the Liberal government on behalf of, including the Anglican Diocese of Tasmania, Chambroad Overseas Investment, Salmon Tasmania, Hobart and Launceston airports and Van Dairy.

There were instances where Font's publishing and lobbying arms overlapped.

In 2023, Tasmanian Country published a story on animal rights allegations facing abattoir Tasmanian Quality Meats (TQM) at Cressy, which focused on the potential ramifications of an export licence suspension.

TQM was one of Font's lobbying clients — not mentioned in the story — and the article came out before the ABC published allegations from Farm Transparency Project footage.

Font's involvement in Tasmanian politics was also ongoing.

On top of that, Font ran the Tasmanian Liberal Party's 2021 and 2024 successful election campaigns. 

It was not involved in the 2025 campaign.

In 2023, Danielle McKay, another former Liberal staffer who became a partner after Mr Nowland left, was also employed as Premier Jeremy Rockliff's media adviser for eight weeks while the government searched for a new head of media and communications.

She was a Font partner at the time, but not a registered lobbyist.

The government defended it at the time, saying Ms McKay would only be providing public-facing activities, such as media releases, responding to media inquiries and writing speeches.

'Fingers in a lot of pies'

It is not unusual for polling companies in Australia to also carry out public relations.

Tasmanian election analyst Kevin Bonham pointed to Freshwater, Redbridge and Essential as having varying levels of government relations arms, along with their polling.

Nor was EMRS "independent" until Font took it over, having been run by national lobbying firm Crosby Textor.

But Dr Bonham said the recent changes at EMRS were "significant in Tasmania".

"It was obvious that once Font owned EMRS, you saw changes in the way EMRS operated," he said.

EMRS carried out commissioned polling for the Liberal Party at the recent Tasmanian election, with strong accuracy.

Dr Bonham said Font had played a major role in Tasmanian politics for some time.

"They certainly had fingers in a lot of pies," he said.