The Southern Free Times is excited to announce we will resume publication of a FREE weekly printed edition, starting next Thursday 4 June.
The Southern Free Times has been in an online format since April due to COVID-19 but with encouraging signs locally of economic recovery – understanding it’s still ‘early days’ – we believe the time is right to return to a printed format, as well as maintaining our free online news service.
We believe in the resilience of our communities and the business sector in the Southern Downs and Granite Belt regions – and we’re here to proudly serve our many valued readers and advertisers, as we’ve done for the last two decades.
The impacts of COVID-19 will continue to be felt for some time, but we take the view we have a role to play in assisting the economic recovery from this crisis, including providing high-quality local news coverage.
Our decision follows the announcement today – Thursday 28 May – by News Corporation that it will cease printing the Warwick Daily News and the Stanthorpe Border Post and some 100 other regional publications across Australia, converting those titles to digital-only paid formats from late June.
Reading habits and consumption of news has never been greater, and the platform options to deliver that news are now numerous. As a result the Southern Free Times team has taken the opportunity during COVID-19 to review, improve and increase our delivery options of our content. From next week our print edition will be delivered to many strategic locations, available for readers to pick up free copies across the Southern Downs, Granite Belt, South-West and Border regions.
These include supermarkets and other shopping centres and ‘main street’ retail outlets, fuel outlets, cafes, medical centres, hospitality venues and community facilities. Our publication will also be available as a free digital edition, where more and more readers are choosing to have the publication delivered straight to their inbox – no subscription charge or ‘paywall’. We also provide an email service with news linked to our website, plus breaking news – again, all free content.
Home delivery of the printed format will cease in the built-up areas of major towns – it’s an inefficient delivery form and the decision will help us to continue as a FREE publication, both in print and online. As more local businesses continue to recover from COVID-19 we hope to expand our distribution network even further.
What won’t change is our dedication to providing our communities with LOCAL news – and providing high exposure for our advertisers in a free print format, and continuing our online presence.
We thank our readers and advertisers for their strong past support, and for their patience and understanding while we like many other businesses navigate through the current challenges – and most importantly we look forward to being back in print from next week!
FOR ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT –
• WARWICK – LISA CROUCH – 0407 690 066
• STANTHORPE – SAMANTHA WANTLING – 0439 420 289
• EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES TO JEREMY SOLLARS – 0427 090 818
