Bass Coast Post
  • Home
    • Recent articles
  • News
    • Point of view
    • View from the chamber
  • Writers
    • Anne Davie
    • Anne Heath Mennell
    • Bob Middleton
    • Carolyn Landon
    • Catherine Watson
    • Christine Grayden
    • Dick Wettenhall
    • Ed Thexton
    • Etsuko Yasunaga
    • Frank Coldebella
    • Gayle Marien
    • Geoff Ellis
    • Gill Heal
    • Harry Freeman
    • Ian Burns
    • Joan Woods
    • John Coldebella
    • Jordan Crugnale
    • Julie Statkus
    • Kit Sleeman
    • Laura Brearley >
      • Coastal Connections
    • Lauren Burns
    • Liane Arno
    • Linda Cuttriss
    • Linda Gordon
    • Lisa Schonberg
    • Liz Low
    • Marian Quigley
    • Mark Robertson
    • Mary Whelan
    • Meryl Brown Tobin
    • Michael Whelan
    • Mikhaela Barlow
    • Miriam Strickland
    • Natasha Williams-Novak
    • Neil Daly
    • Patsy Hunt
    • Pauline Wilkinson
    • Phil Wright
    • Sally McNiece
    • Terri Allen
    • Tim Shannon
    • Zoe Geyer
  • Features
    • Features 2022
  • Arts
  • Local history
  • Environment
  • Bass Coast Prize
  • Community
    • Diary
    • Courses
    • Groups
  • Contact us

The inside story

19/6/2020

5 Comments

 
PictureMatt Dunn. Photos: Mark Drury Photography
By Matt Dunn

LAST month, News Corp Australia announced it was moving almost all of its community and regional newspaper titles to a digital-only format.

A small number of regional titles ceased publication altogether – snuffed out by a seismic shift in the way advertisements are run and news is consumed. Who hasn’t noticed the way traditional papers have continued to shrink?

It’s heart wrenching to say, but the obituary for print has already been written.

​When we - the core group behind 
The Paper - lost our jobs at the Leongatha Star, we were bereft. It had been a tough time recently, and we knew that the closure during the Covid-19 lockdown was likely to end up being permanent. It was a sad and inauspicious end to 130 years of local history. The same, of course, applies to the Star’s sister paper, the Yarram Standard, which had been around for 145 years.

PictureJane Gardner, advertising and marketing for The Paper
For me, personally, newspaper closures are like the ransacking of galleries filled with priceless art - a sledgehammer blow to our democracy and our sense of self. Sure, there are some dodgy journalists around. Sure, there are some media moguls with hidden agendas. But, for the most part, news journalists are keen to tell a story and tell it first.
For a country journalist it’s an even more personal mission, since you often know the people you’re writing about.

While we’re saddened by the News Corp announcement, we can appreciate why it’s occurred. It hurts me to say that the old newsprint format is dead (or at least on its deathbed). It’s why we have chosen to launch our own news service online. The past is the past, and the present barely stands still. If you don’t look to the future, you may as well as give up all hope.

While we have traditionally been newspaper people, we’ve embraced a new era – and taken our paper – ‘The Paper’ – online. That means extended videos, traditional articles and a fully interactive website. We’ve got great regular columnists, laughs, hard analysis of the news and a bright personality.

PictureNick Jeremiah (creative director)
We at The Paper are banking (quite literally) on the assumption that New Corp is on the right track. Believe me, we’re not rejoicing in it, for we know the human cost of newspaper closures. We’re amongst those affected (though we would never see ourselves as ‘victims’).

That being said, we will be staring down the barrel of a paltry Job Seeker ‘wage’ unless we can find traction with this online enterprise.


Fortunately, the early signs are good - with local advertisers and local readers already embracing our digital platform.

Frightening as these times are, we can only take the leap: gathering all the traditions and heart of a community newspaper and putting them online.

The future is as yet unwritten, just like tomorrow’s news. The delivery format may change, but there will always be a story to tell and a community to serve.
​

Here’s to tomorrow, whatever it may bring.

5 Comments
Geoff Ellis
20/6/2020 04:40:44 pm

Well done Jane, Nick and Matt,

Now you can write your own headlines!

Readers will always go where the best story tellers have the freedom to inform and inspire. Stay true, stay local and the readership will find you.

Reply
Julie Constable
20/6/2020 05:44:35 pm

Good luck Matt and team with your new venture. Will you be covering Yarram as well?

Reply
Neil Rankine
20/6/2020 06:54:45 pm

Great to see this initiative. Please don't allow it to be a vehicle for anyone's personal agendas. If we know news and stories are accurate and informative we will support you.

Reply
Felicia Di Stefano
21/6/2020 04:48:22 pm

May you succeed Matt and staff. I look forward to reading 'The Paper'. I well remember you remarkable story about community sponsorship of refugees and the lack of it in Australia.

Reply
JOHN M GASCOIGNE
29/6/2020 02:42:48 pm

Your eloquent Farewell To Print makes me want to read more of you, Matt. If courage is "grace under pressure" (Hemingway), you're not lacking in that department either. Paper is dead. Long live The Paper!

Reply



Leave a Reply.