Happy 10th Birthday to the Blackwood Times …
This time in 2008 we distributed the very first issue of the Blackwood News & later changed the masthead to ‘the Blackwood Times’. What a ride it’s been for Brendan & me. Every 2 months for the past 10 years we’ve locked ourselves away to produce another issue.
Several years ago we did a call-out for helpers to take on specific jobs because we couldn’t continue to do it all ourselves. This has been a great help, but more recently we’ve realised that, if the Times is going to continue into the future, we need a succession plan.
My feeling is that the workload needs to be shared. I’ve attended 8 Community Newspapers Association of Victoria conferences over the years & explored a number of community paper running models. I would like to develop a process where we have a core group of committed locals & each person is trained in every aspect of producing an issue. Main roles such as editing, proofing, collecting articles, photo selection, website maintenance etc could be rotated over a 3 issue period, which results in equally shared responsibility.
Although we don’t plan to give up the Times in the immediate future, we’d like to hear from anyone who wants to get together to discuss succession possibilities. The role offers a great way to learn new skills, meet people & there is a load of job satisfaction to be had.
This issue is a slim volume as input from the community has tailed off. What great content can you generate to fill future issues?
I’m looking forward to hearing from you but in the meantime I hope you enjoy this 10th birthday issue.
Download your 10th Birthday June July ’18 colour issue of the Times … (4mb). With more than 6 pages of photos, who do you recognise?.
INSIDE:
Photos galore
p8-9 Community Updates
p14-15 Beyond Blackwood
Enjoy catching up with what’s been happening around town … & don’t forget, if you love one of our contributors articles please shoot us a line for Letters to the Editor. Our regulars spend a lot of time putting articles together for our information & entertainment – they love it when they get your feedback.
Of course all our wonderful contributors articles are scattered through-out the issue.
If you are out & about in Blackwood & take a great photo or hear a great story that you think we’d like – email it to us (original image straight out of phone or camera is best) with a caption & story. Remember this is your community paper, we just put it together!
Please consider supporting our future publications by donating when you download … this helps to pay for printing & other costs associated with publishing our Community paper.
Download your 10th Birthday June July ’18 colour issue of the Times … (4mb)
If you’re in Blackwood, pick up your copy from
- The Blackwood Merchant
- Blackwood Hotel
- Blackwood Post Office (Jindarup)
- Garden of St Erth
- Blackwood Caravan Park
If you’re not in Blackwood you can pick copy up (Sunday on) at
- Greendale Hotel
- Red Beard Bakery
- Trentham Petrol & Stuff
- Radio Springs Hotel (Lyonville)
Please do put a coin or 2 in the box when you take your copy, this helps to pay for printing & other costs associated with publishing our community paper.