Outback Australia News via Media Man Group

References

Outback Australia (Wikipedia)

Centralian Advocate (Wikipedia)

NT News

Alice Springs News publication announces closure after almost 30 years - 14 Feb 2022
(ABC)

Profiles

Outback Australia Alice Springs Bitcoin Australia Digital Business Gaming Entertainment Social

Pop Culture Media Digital Property Politics

Advertising Promotions

After almost three decades, the founders of Alice Springs News have announced the local publication will close, citing financial difficulties.

In an update posted to the website, founders Erwin Chlanda and Kieran Finnane said the decision to close had been "a long time coming".

"As with hundreds of other newspapers around the world, print and digital, we have succumbed to the loss of advertising revenue, much of it now flowing to American social media," they wrote.

"Disappointing, there has been insufficient support from the local community which did not match with cash its praise for our journalism."

The Alice Springs News started as a newspaper in 1994 and launched an online platform in 1997.

It stopped printing a newspaper and became a solely online publication in 2011.

Closure not a 'final decision'

Mr Chlanda and Ms Finnane said they would continue to moderate "the spontaneously created discussion place" on the Alice Springs News website "for as long as possible".

"It is clear proof that the town's people want a high-quality platform for debate, such as what we have offered," they wrote.

Speaking to ABC Alice Springs, Mr Chlanda said he would be willing to reverse his decision to close the Alice Springs News if a new source of funding became available.

"If somebody comes along with the right amount of money and the right attitude towards journalism it would only take us about five or six hours to revive the Alice Springs News," Mr Chlanda said.

He said it would not be financially viable to return to a print publication.

"We had to make $5,001 per week to earn $1. Printing, transport, and distribution is incredibly expensive.

"Online is much faster. Anybody with a mobile phone can read us, and that's people out bush, for example … whereas previously we would take a bundle of papers to the main store in the community and leave it on the counter and people would pick it up.

"It would take a couple of days to get there. Quite often the news was old."

Local publication 'will be missed'

Loyal readers have praised the Alice Springs News and lamented its closure.

Independent member for Araluen, Robyn Lambley, said she had a "long relationship" with Alice Springs News founders Erwin Chlanda and Kieran Finnane that started when she was campaigning to become an alderman on the Alice Springs Town Council in 2004.

"Quite frankly both of them scared the living daylights out of me," she said.

"They knew what they were talking about and I was quite the opposite. They were a formidable team."

Ms Lambley said Mr Chlanda "got up people's noses" and "upset people because he was uncompromising at times".

"It's a massive loss to the town, I feel very sad," she said.

Alice Springs councillor Marli Banks left a comment on the Alice Springs News website praising the publication for its coverage of local government and "the issues facing Alice Springs and the greater community".

"The past four years have been a rollercoaster and it still amazed me how the chaos was so well woven together in your writing," she said.

Future of local print news uncertain

Local councillor and principal consultant at Northern Possibilities, Jimmy Cocking, said a group of long-term business people in Alice Springs were considering re-establishing a local newspaper.

"They consider a sustainable newspaper for Alice Springs to be a very important element to the town's livability and it's community's health," he said.

Speaking to ABC program The Drum on Thursday the president of Country Press Australia, Andrew Manuel, said he had also been approached by people in Alice Springs looking to re-establish a print product.

The organisation has set up new regional papers in South Australia after many folded in recent years.

Mr Chlanda said he was aware of groups in Alice Springs who had tried to make enquiries about restarting a print news publication, but said it was unlikely to get off the ground because it was no longer financially viable.

*click here for full article and multimedia

(ABC)