Before MyCity Logan launched its first edition of MyCity Logan at the start of Covid, we spent hundreds of hours driving the streets, looking for places we thought we could make a newspaper accessible.
Our mantra was simple: We wanted to produce a newspaper which was free and available to all people of Logan.
We wanted to provide what we believed to be an essential service to our city that Rupert Murdoch took away in early 2020.
In fact, News Corp at the time took community newspapers away from 270 communities Australia-wide.
Since then, magazines and websites have come and gone. Where others saw a quick advertising dollar, MyCity Logan prided itself on telling the story of our city.
It is true that there is a commercial element to what we do. In every business it is essential to pay the bills to survive.
When we began, we asked the business community to trust us. JG Lohrisch Funerals and Member for Forde Bert van Manen were two who took us for our word to advertise in the very first edition on October 6, 2020. Neither of those have missed an edition.
From the outset, we worked on some fundamental principles, maintaining a belief that if we told the story right, and we were able to have Logan’s back through thick and thin, that we could become the city’s primary news source.
Through floods, more than 90,000 people came to our website for live rolling coverage. We’ve challenged authority, asked tough questions and fostered debate.
We’ve been through elections of all tiers, we’ve celebrated tremendous success, and reported on deep tragedy. Most of all, we’ve been reflective of our community, honouring the good and being brave enough to deplore the bad.
Now, thanks to you, we continue to publish every Tuesday, and we know there are many places in the city where newspapers have been snapped up by Wednesday.
Over our 200 editions, hundreds of people have told us their stories, and we regard that a privilege as much we do a pleasure.
Some are sad, some are funny, poignant, pragmatic, outraged or progressive. But all are important.
As we continue to the next 100 editions, we say thank you to Logan for allowing us into your lives.
