LOCALLY-OWNED NEWSPAPERS SHINING
CORPORATELY-OWNED former local newspapers are dropping like flies thanks to a downturn in advertising revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but locally-owned papers are enjoying a resurgence as people increasingly see the benefits of businesses that live and work in their communities.
For three decades large companies have gobbled up many locally-owned radio and television stations as well as newspapers and “consolidated” by cutting local staff and selling off assets and “networking” news, which means replacing local stories with either national news or looking for any local angle on a story that appeared in a national newspaper.
With many businesses closed or struggling in the lockdown, advertising revenue has been more difficult to come by, but many locally-owned papers are defying the trend of laying people off or telling them to take long service leave.
Just down the road from Dubbo, Orange
City Life NEWSWATCH will debut on the local stage towards the end of the month, with the first edition hitting the newsstands on May 23.
Publisher and former Dubbo resident Bob Holland is buoyed by the local support for his newspaper.
He says the new full-colour paper will carry the slogan “Local news delivered with Integrity” and will be free for pick-up each Saturday from busy locations around Orange.
“We pledge to report news to the Orange community that is accurate and without embellishment on matters of interest, concern, and enlightenment to our readers,” Mr Holland said.
“Articles, features, and columns will aim to be well-researched, balanced, and fair at all times.
“News stories will be objective and measured while opinion pieces – those stating the views of a journalist or contributor – will be clearly-marked as such with these beliefs being those of the author only and not of the paper as a whole,” he said.
The aim of the new paper will be to achieve positive outcomes from each story, to inform about new initiatives, to reveal an injustice or inequality and to promote community awareness and to drive change that makes Orange better as a city.
The withdrawal of “corporate-local-newspapers” has given real local people an opportunity to enter the game.
One snapshot into the changing times of country papers can be gleaned from a story by The Lead South Australia, which reported that Michael Waite, a former Microsoft accountant and Washington State treasurer hopeful, has returned to his hometown of Naracoorte to start a new paper for the 8000 residents.
He was frustrated at the decision by Australian Community Media (ACM) to suspend publication of a 145-year-old newspaper in the town and from concept to the first edition of The Naracoorte Community News took just three weeks.
The first issue went on sale for $2 in the first week of May, selling out its print run of 1700 copies within 36 hours in the town of just over 8000 people.
Mr Waite told The Lead that a town the size of Naracoorte does not deserve to be without a newspaper.
“It’s part of the fabric of a community, like the hospital or police station,” Mr Waites said.
“I grew up with the Naracoorte Herald. My mum Sue sold advertising and then managed it for thirty-five years.
“Australian Community Media walked away from our community with this paper and it struck me that I should see what I could do.”
Australian Community Media has been publishing more than 160 newspapers across the country.
A number of years ago, when the former owners shut down the Dubbo-based newspaper printing press, the printing of many western NSW mastheads was moved to Tamworth.
New owner ACM has now shut down the Tamworth printing press and suspended papers such as the Wellington Times and Narromine News until the end of the financial year.