Regional papers are both profitable and a real part of the community. The lack of fast and cheap internet over the years has made it almost impossible for news on the web to penetrate regional Australia as well as it has in the US and Britain.
One glance at the number of people who line up to use the net at the local library shows that local residents have limited access to the internet. And the NBN with all its offerings is still a decade away for some remote areas, and doesn't address the affordability issues prevalent in country areas. Even so, the internet is the friend of country papers, not the alternative, and not the sole future.
Fairfax's regional papers made an $89 million profit for the first half of last financial year, down slightly on the first half of the year before. That was on the back of $300m income.
These regional papers, and others owned by News Limited, have a big advantage by being the only papers in the town or city and having the local real estate and jobs market sewn up. They are also successful because they listen to, and are a big part of, their community. They know what is important to their readers and they give them what they want.
Metropolitan papers have, it seems, tried to either mirror the web or ignore it, rather than give detail and analysis of uber-local issues. Former Bendigo Bank managing director and Community Bank architect Rob Hunt says that as the world becomes global, people become more tribal. He's right. Newspaper readers want, need and desire relevant local content, not necessarily international features and celebrity photos.
The business model in suburban and regional areas is working, is making money, is sustainable and is in no way threatened by the web. While the odd blogger can provide ultra local news, country folk aren't that keen to take the word of an untrusted, untested and unknown source over the well-loved local paper.
They used to be called the local "throwaways", the papers that had little real news content in them, never broke stories and were thrown over the front fence or put in mailboxes. Their business model is separate to those collapsing around the world. In Bendigo, Mildura, Shepparton, Albury-Wodonga, Horsham and Geelong, the "freebies" are making a big splash.
The free papers in those cities are no longer, in most cases, wall-to-wall ads separated by advertorials. The Bendigo Weekly, 15-years-old and owned by a group of local real estate agents and a local businessman with experience in the print and TV industries, won a Walkley award for a campaigning series on Bendigo's troubled water supply.
Despite government opposition, a water pipe was built and Bendigo was saved from running out of water, twice. Two years later, the Bendigo Weekly won a Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for its revelations about the new head of the local water corporation, and then-premier John Brumby's long-time friend, being a former bankrupt who didn't mention that on his application form.
As well as taking it up to their big daily rivals editorially, the papers are also a threat financially. As well as having journalism that bites, these papers attract readers, in some cases more in one edition than their daily counterpart has in six. This is where the business model stands out. From the day of their birth, these papers survived without classifieds. They were forced to grow their display ads, something the internet can't compete with, not for income anyway.
Never before has the free print model been stronger, and never before has the climate been better to grow them. While the media landscape around the country is changing, the effects will take longer to be felt in regional Victoria, and in Bendigo. However, once they are felt, free papers will be left standing at the end of the day, healthier than ever.
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