Until 2020, it was published as a standalone bi-weekly print newspaper on Tuesdays and Fridays, claiming a readership of 15,000 people and with an audited circulation of 4401 as of 2018.

[1] In 2020, News Corp Australia announced that the Advocate would transition to a digital-only format from 29 June, along with numerous other regional newspapers.

[4] The newspaper was founded by Charles Henry "Pop" Chapman who had made his fortune gold mining in the Tanami Desert.

"Reg Harris recalls that during his time as the editor Wauchope "very seldom had to leave the office as he had dozens of unpaid amateur reporters who would bring him stories with no more reward then the sighting of their article in print".

Related to this, in 1983, the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory ordered the destruction of an edition of the newspaper because it "breached traditional Aboriginal cultural protocols by printing photographs of a camp where someone had dies during protests against the construction of a dam on a local Arrernte women's sacred site".

[citation needed] The last print copy of the Centralian Advocate was published on 26 June 2020 after more than 70 years in circulation as a cost-saving measure by their parent company News Corp.[14] This was done alongside upwards of 100 local and regional newspapers that became digital only or disappeared entirely.

The final print issue contained a 16-page commemorative lift-out[3][15] The editor-in-charge in 2020, Anthony Geppa said:[14] I really do feel it's going to have quite a big impact for our older readers who [have] a routine now to sit down every Tuesday and Friday with a physical copy of the paper I also feel really sorry for all the kids that are going to grow up in Alice Springs now who don't have a chance to see their photo in the paper.In lieu of the former print editions of the Centralian Advocate, pages of the Darwin-based Northern Territory News are dedicated to central Australian content on certain days, and these articles are also available, through a subscription, on the NT News website.