Can you help Murray Bridge News make it to 2025?

Peri Strathearn

Oct 21, 2024 — 5 min read

Murray Bridge News managing editor Peri Strathearn has a confession to make. Photo: Jacob Jennings Photography.

I have a confession to make.

People often tell me it seems like Murray Bridge News is going great. We’ve got a team and an office, we’ve launched a quarterly magazine, we’ve established a screen network that reaches up to 20,000 people every week, and the feedback we get from readers is overwhelmingly positive. We must be doing pretty well, right?

But behind the scenes, I’m afraid things aren’t so rosy.

Without the support of our local business community, Murray Bridge News won’t be here in 2025.

Like many blokes, I hate asking for help. I’m not very good at it. I don’t like doing it. But here I am. We’ve been here for you through COVID, floods and hard times, and now I hope you can return the favour.

What’s the problem?

Murray Bridge News has a pretty strong subscriber base, and we’ve been really fortunate with grants over the past four and a half years. But the last of that grant funding is about to run out.

We’ve never had any government assistance. (We’re still waiting for the federal government to make good on a 2022 promise to support local news media.)

Because we’re independent, not part of a big chain, we don’t get a cent of advertising from state or federal government departments, or the big corporations. They won’t answer our emails or phone calls. And we don’t have deep-pocketed owners who can keep us going indefinitely.

So it’s up to us, here in the Murraylands.

How can we help each other?

If you own, manage or work at a local business, or you know someone who does, I encourage you or your employer to consider advertising with Murray Bridge News.

Why would you do that?

We can put your value proposition in front of up to 20,000 people in the Murraylands, between web, email, social media, screens and our magazine. We reach people from their 20s right through to their 80s, men and women, from all walks of life. We reach many more people than the local newspaper, and about as many in the Murraylands as the radio station, at a fraction of the cost. If your business relies on a local customer base, I really believe we can help you grow and thrive.

We’ve got until Christmas to find 11 more businesses who can advertise with us on a regular basis.

We’d love your business to succeed with Murray Bridge News, just like real estate agents, medical centres, lawyers, aged care organisations, hotels and arts venues are already doing. And we’d love your business to be associated with the positive impact our readers say we’re having in our community.

If you’re interested in reaching up to 20,000 locals for just a few hundred bucks per month, give me a call on 0419 827 124, drop me an email at peri@murraybridge.news, or contact my colleague Jane on 0418 835 768 or at jane@murraybridge.news.

If you’d like more information, come along to one of two digital marketing seminars we’ll be presenting this Wednesday at Murray Bridge RSL, at 10am and 1.30pm. We’ll be offering more insights into how many people we reach, in what demographics, why we do what we do and how we fit into the bigger picture.

If you’re not in business, you can help by becoming a paying subscriber for just $8 a month, or save $16 by taking out an annual subscription. Click here.

If you can’t commit to an ongoing subscription, you could send us a one-off donation. We’d be grateful. Click here.

If you’re not in a position to support us financially, you can still be a great help! Subscribe to our free email edition and send it on to your friends or family. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and share our posts. That way, when we’re talking to advertisers about the size of our audience, they’ll be even more impressed, and they might be able to support us.

If you’re feeling particularly feisty, you could even write to the federal Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, and tell her how much local media needs the proposed News Media Assistance Program. Click here.

We're keen to keep the good vibes going. Photo: Jacob Jennings Photography.

What happens if Murray Bridge News can’t reach its goal?

If we can’t find the support we need, I’ll have two options: sell up or close down.

Option one would be selling to a big national company which can attract the corporate and government advertising that would prop up our bottom line. Option two would be shutting the doors. That would mean no more screen network, no more email edition, no more best-in-region events guide, and no more locally owned news service to advocate for your needs.

Yes, we could scale back to a one-man operation, in theory ... but I’ve worked really hard for the past four and a half years. I work long hours, including nights and weekends, and I don’t pay myself very much. I can’t keep doing that forever.

I want to focus on the stories that keep audiences following Murray Bridge News – the investigation into vacant houses we’re doing at the moment, stories that keep our councils accountable, stories that keep important issues in the public eye, positive stories that don’t get told anywhere else – without waking up every morning and thinking “but how are we going to pay for it?”

There are days I’m tempted to quit. I could make a whole lot more money and have a lot less stress in my life.

But, for better or worse, I love this job.

I love getting out in the community, meeting people and listening to their stories by the thousands. People are doing awesome things in all the towns in our region. We’re growing. It’s a good spot!

I want to stay here and be part of that. I want my kids to grow up here. I want to keep doing this job. It’s what I’m good at, and it’s the best way for me to make myself useful to the community. I just need your help.

That’s not the polished pitch you might get from someone at a big corporation. But it’s honesty, which is what you’ll get from me and the team at Murray Bridge News.

Yours hopefully,