Murray Bridge News’ 2025 survey prize winner revealed

Here’s who walked away with a Monarto Safari Park pass, a Drakes voucher and more; and what we learned from you, our lovely audience.

Liana Webster, Peri Strathearn

Jul 22, 2025 — 3 min read

Murray Bridge News' Liana Webster hands over the goods to this year's survey prize winner, Amanda Bakker. Photo: Liana Webster.

Amanda Bakker signed up with Murray Bridge News nearly as soon as she moved into town a few years ago.

She has even starred in a story, advocating for young mums and staying healthy after children.

This week Ms Bakker makes her return to the pages of this website, as the winner of this year’s reader survey competition.

Her good fortune earned her a Monarto Safari Park pass, a $50 Drakes voucher and a novel, plus a Murray Bridge News pen, mug and tote bag.

"I really like supporting such an awesome local business that does give really good news," Ms Bakker said.

"Murray Bridge News reports on everything the community wants to know, and in a friendly way.

"I wish everyone would subscribe, I would recommend it to anyone."

She especially appreciated our weekly Things to Do column, just to see what events were coming up.

She also loved our annual April Fools’ Day posts – the one day of each year when you could accuse us of spreading fake news.

What did we learn from this year’s survey?

Murray Bridge News’ annual reader survey helps the Murray Bridge News team know whether they’re on the right track, and helps us plan our activities for the next 12 months.

Thanks to everyone who responded for making some really helpful suggestions about our news coverage, Murraylands Life magazine, and especially the recent Murraylands Business Awards, which will return next year.

Asked to name the most significant local issue in need of news coverage, your top three were:

On average, you rated Murray Bridge News nine out of 10, and suggested we were your number-one source of local news in the Murraylands.

Of the more than 250 survey respondents:

97% agreed that we are generally positive
95% said we helped you feel more connected to the community
75% said we empowered you to have your say about local issues
74% said you had attended an event, or made a purchase or donation, as a result of our coverage

If you’re an advertising client, you’ll be interested to hear that our audience members tend to be local, well educated, and more often female than male, which is unusual for a news publisher.

Interestingly, this year’s survey suggested we have a good readership across all age groups, despite interest in local news peaking among people in their 50s and 60s, in line with national trends.

Murray Bridge News has run a reader survey each year since it was founded by local journalist Peri Strathearn in 2020.

This publication remains 100 per cent locally owned, and is a certified social enterprise, committed to investing its profits back into its community purpose.