Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Welcome to this week’s editorial and to the Beagle Weekender Volume 178. Volume number 178 represents a milestone for the Beagle Weekender as it is the 178th issue that has come to you every single Friday without fail for the last 178 weeks.
But more than that The Beagle is celebrating its fourth birthday. Since it started on October 27th 2016 The Beagle has published 14,682 articles. The Beagle now has more than 30,000 regular readers each month and 10,000 followers on Facebook. There are 4,300 subscribers to the twice weekly mailout and, as it is an online news site, it is enjoyed around the world by those travelling or living away and wanting to keep up to date with local news.
Many ask why the website is called the beagleweekly.com.au. This might be an opportunity to offer a little Beagle history…
Before I edited the Beagle I published a monthly mailout pdf for the Tuross Head community called the Tuross Giant. The newsletter was popular and was focused on keeping the Tuross Head community up to date on local and shire wide matters that affected them. Tuross Head was continually overlooked in the local media and the Tuross Giant was created to remedy that oversight.
A turning point came when the Bay Post decided it was going to go behind a pay wall. I looked at what content they were publishing and grew more and more aware of all the possible content they weren’t. I also saw local business advertising diminishing being replaced with national adverts. Approaching local businesses I discovered few could afford the fees.
So the Beagle was born. Initially I had the intention of doing a mailout just like the Tuross Giant. Fortunately though I was able to work out how one person, with a laptop, anywhere on the planet, could run an entire newspaper on a website, on social media and then add a weekly mailout option as well.
The Beagle has now been up and running for four years and has become the primary news source for the Eurobodalla as it is FREE, timely and inclusive of all news, from jumble sales to Federal and State media releases and everything in between.
The Beagle, YOUR Beagle, is brought to you by the local businesses who advertise on the website, in our new real estate guide and in these pages. We have very low fees so that our supporters can afford to promote themselves to their community.
I thank the many Beagle supporters and donors who help keep the overheads paid so that the ’paper’ can remain afloat and I thank the generosity of all of the contributors who bring you their news, views and articles.
Until next—Lei
