Flame calls on readers to help 'Keep Local News Thriving' as national fundraiser begins today

Nationwide local news fundraiser begins today – to contribute, click through to Press Patron

Some readers may have heard that Australian media is in trouble. And behind the mainstream headlines crying for help, small independent publishers like the Flame are finding it hard too.

Print costs are ever rising and delivering magazines to 11k homes is a huge logistical exercise. This is why the Flame is the only local news provider delivered to letterboxes and inboxes.

Thanks to a Walkley Foundation grant during the pandemic, we’ve been building an online home that now has 10k+ visitors a month. Due to print costs, often we’ll run a short story in print and the long read online – a capability, which as journalists who put the story first, we love. (If you haven’t yet subscribed, please sign up for our unique free digital magazine emailed every Friday!)

Yet even sharing digital news has become challenging, partly because global tech giant Meta, owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is fed up with paying fees to big media co’s and doing the equivalent of ripping down our posters and binning our pamphlets as it ‘deprioritises’ all news. In Canada, Facebook has blocked news links altogether, something expected to follow here.

This is why, from June 3-7, for the first time in our 10-year history, we’re taking part in a national fundraiser for local news.

It’s run by the Local and Independent News Association (LINA), a professional body founded in 2021 to represent publications like ours.

Over the past decade, we’ve told countless stories about everyone from scouts to firefighters, historians to scientists, sports stars to artists, authors and musicians. We’ve covered everything from fires to floods, from traffic to development, from school fundraisers to environmental science.

At LINA’s conference in Port Douglas in May, a personal highlight was hearing Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland mention the Flame in her opening address as an example of the good work done by local media.

Inspired by LINA’s leadership, this month we’re joining 34 other independent publications around the country to call on readers to help fund local news. LINA members come in different shapes and sizes, print and digital, pay-walled and free, but they’re all playing a vital role in connecting, informing and empowering their communities.

At the Flame, we’re continuing to reinvest in public interest journalism, hiring and mentoring the young local graduates who are our storytellers of the future. Everyone is welcome to send us a news tip and if we like the idea, we’ll pay one of our young (or old) journalists to cover it.

To contribute, visit https://theillawarraflame.presspatron.com

Thanks for reading,

Genevieve & Marcus, owner-editors