Your local news source reinvents itself - AGAIN!

WELCOME TO YET ANOTHER VERSION OF THE BRIDGETOWN-GREENBUSHES STAR!

My word this publication has seen some changes in just a few short years, hasn’t it? It started life as a free online publication with the hope that local advertising would be sufficient to make it viable.

While it was always popular, and its stories attracted a lot of readers, it was doomed to failure as a business venture, and so it morphed intoThe Bridgetown Star Mark Two.

After flirting briefly with a cover price it became a free magazine-style publication produced on a photocopier and distributed around town.

Once again it was a hit with local readers, but was held back by the cost of printing, which restricted its circulation, and which in turn reduced its appeal to advertisers.

It was time to strike out with the new, improved BridgetownGreenbushes Star Mark Three, a bright new tabloid size newspaper that was distributed free of charge throughout Bridgetown and Greenbushes.

Right from the start it was obvious that the locals loved it, with 2,000 copies flying off the shelves around town. Best of all from a business point of view, the advertisers were really starting to take to it too.

Things were looking rosy!

And then right out of the blue it all came crashing down when IVE, the printer, closed shop, taking with it not just this paper after two editions, but other rural papers around the state as well.

It was a tragedy for small independent publications and the communities that relied on them.

The state’s only other newsprint publisher, The West Australian, showed no interest in printing a competitor to its Manjimup-Bridgetown Times

So here we go again with the BridgetownGreenbushes Star Mark Four, an online-only publication behind a paywall.

“I think this really is the last throw of the dice for a local news source that’s locally owned and professionally produced in Bridgetown and Greenbushes.”

- MARK SCHNEIDER

In all honesty I can’t pretend to be fired with enthusiasm for this latest iteration of your local “newspaper”.

My preference has always been for a publication with a big circulation throughout Bridgetown and Greenbushes that’s free for everyone to enjoy. But right now, I just can’t make that work. Through all its various iterations one thing’s remained consistent, and that’s the hunger for a local news source.

The readers, that’s you, have always strongly supported the Bridgetown Star, and later the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Star.

So I hope you’ll continue to support your local online “newspaper” in its new format, because I think this really is the last throw of the dice for a local news source that’s locally owned and professionally produced in Bridgetown and Greenbushes.