A newspaper reflects and shapes the community it serves. And so, each of the metropolitan newspapers has its own personality and distinct obsessions, from people it hates, to local issues it just really gets worked up about.

It doesn’t take much for The Daily Telegraph in Sydney to get itself worked up. But nothing gets the Tele frothing at the mouth quite as much as when Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore says or does pretty much anything.

Like most Sydneysiders, The Sydney Morning Herald takes a keen interest in real estate, and housing prices will appear on its front pages very regularly, as do public transport yarns.

In sports-mad Melbourne, the Herald Sun pricks up its ears at anything to do with the AFL — in the sports pages and the news pages.

As the Melbourne hipster’s daily rag of choice, The Age loves stories about hipsters (which caused a bit of trouble with this profile) — including, but not limited to, decorating bollards.

The Courier-Mail loves to hate mining magnate and former MP Clive Palmer.

Over in Perth, The West Australian will never pass up a good, old-fashioned shark story (especially if they’re talking about culls).

The NT News‘ obsessions are well-documented. Its love for crocodile and UFO stories is plain to see. It also dedicates front pages to anything it finds a bit sexy, or animals eating animals.

And, like any small city, it loves telling the story of its successful children. Singer Jess Mauboy is a darling of the paper, usually given the moniker of “Wulagi songbird”, referring to her home suburb in Darwin.

Hobart’s Mercury is the most sedate of the Murdoch tabloids. It gets a little worked up about anything to do with tourism, but the long-running topic that really gives the keyboard a workout in the newsroom is a cable car for Mount Wellington. The idea has been proposed and knocked back many times over the years, and every time it gets relentless coverage.

It’s no surprise that The Advertiser follows power issues closely, especially given last summer’s blackouts. But water utilities have been really getting them going in Adelaide over the past year or so — enough to actually print a cardboard cutout of Water Minister Ian Hunter to pose in photos illustrating stories about burst water mains.