My name is DIANA PATON and I publish the Hills to Hawkesbury Community News. I also publish the Dooral Roundup and the Galston, Glenorie & Hills Rural Community News.
It’s not always an easy job but it’s a job I love because I am passionate about the importance of community and the power of print to connect people.
There has been a lot of news recently about the loss of local printed weekly newspapers, and their move online.
It’s been a slow process but the “big players” have been shrinking their footprint in the community for some time.
The move has deprived local organisations and groups of the opportunity to have their events and stories published.
And while it has been sad to see much-loved mastheads disappear from view the hyper locals are still here to provide the platforms residents seek.
My publications are free to readers because I believe local news should be freely available. It is what pulls a community together.
As we have seen during the bushfires, floods and the COVID-19, local communities do support one another in times of crises. We have felt this too. Many businesses have continued to support us, which has been very humbling. We are here to support and inform our local community. Not everyone is ‘online’, not everyone has a Facebook or social media account.
Printed news is still important for everyone who wants to sit down with a cuppa and just take a break and read something interesting or relevant to them.
People love reading about their friends, their local community and to find out what’s happening. Looking online for local stuff is often like looking for a needle in a haystack. How many different places do you need to search.
The Hills to Hawkesbury Community News team live locally and are part of this wonderful community. All of us want to give something back. Being a small business, we don’t have any highly paid Corporate Executives to worry about, so this enables us to keep the advertising costs to our local businesses affordable.
So if you are looking for a local business, please consider supporting one of our advertisers. Also mention where you saw the Ad. If you want to read local stories in between our fortnightly publication, we are always updating our facebook page with breaking news.
The Hills to Hawkesbury Community News has been in print for over 35 years, with your help, let’s try to keep going for the next 35 years too.
