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Why We Need Our Own Paper

Cootamundra is like many country towns in that it relies heavily on agriculture. When the farmers have a good year there is often a flow on effect through the community. With recent rain I hope this year will be better for our community than the last few years.

Things have been quiet with fires and drought throughout our business community of late. We have seen a continued decline in the media landscape over the last few years.

Social Media has become a source of information and news and the online medium governs a lot of what we do, just in the Bakery. Including, ordering our supplies and delivering to customers. With Media it is the same. Online has become a large part of how a newspaper works.

I am backing this paper both in a community way and a financial way. I have put my hand up with the assistance of the Twin Town Times staff to offer a new alternative. Our advertising prices will meet the market and the way we work within the community will be different to what many people are used to. We will do our best to tell your story, the way you want it told, so that you can reach your customers and spread your message. We don’t have to please faceless shareholders. We just have to produce a news product and keep it profitable. We can do that with your support.

We will have a website soon and it won’t have a paywall. You will be able to read what we post and our advertisers will be able to take total advantage of that to reach their customers. At this stage we will have a weekly print product, but the possibilities are endless. I believe there is still a place for the hard copy for many of our older residents who seek that product, but we would love everyone to buy it.  That way, everyone supports the paper and those who have website access will still see our stories in the palm of their hand, as we post them.

The Cootamundra Times will have a big push for content, I want more stories in the paper. For advertisers you will be pleasantly surprised with prices.

The Times will focus heavily on our local sport when it comes back after Covid -19. It will focus on what is going on in our community and the organisations that make up our community. I see a lot of different people in the shop and I want to continue to build those relationships to provide the information needed for a successful paper.

I want to thank the staff at the Times for helping us out this week with the product and they have pledged to continue to do that. We will be using their style of model which has worked for over 6 years. I will have a box in the bakery for contributed content whether its typed or written and information can be sent via email at the moment to editorial@twintowntimes.com.au

The current times are uncertain but we are a proud town and we deserve our own paper. 

Nostalgia is great but Coota’s next chapter is yet to be told. This week we will be making available to the public 1000 Free copies which have been paid for between the Twin Town Times and myself. Next week the paper will have a $2  masthead price and from then on. A new paper has been talked about for the last 12 months and it nearly got off the ground a few years back. Now is the time to push ahead and support a new local business. With Anzac Day fast approaching, we can commemorate our special day by taking photos in our driveways and sending them through to the email address. 

It will be a historical event, this is the first time Anzac Day has been cancelled since 1919 when the Spanish Flu prevented Australians from gathering for it.

I look forward to talking to you again soon and keeping you updated.

Josh McCarthy

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