Skip to content

Improve your Gippslandia browsing experience by using Chrome or Safari.

Contribute to Gippslandia and support positive local storytelling. — donate here

Connecting Gippsland through
positive storytelling.

Shop GippslandiaSupport Gippslandia

Connecting Gippsland through positive storytelling.

ArticleBusiness

Next steps.

The crossroads are here. At this stage, here are three options we see going forwards...

Sep 16, 2021


Words: Michael Duncan

Contribute to support more positive local storytelling.

Support

When this column started, I had just a few pretty simple intentions:
1 — To be transparent about how
Gippslandia operates and functions; after all, we’re not competing with anyone.

2 — To hopefully encourage others to engage with us or feel supported in pursuing their own passion projects. Heck, if we can make it to 19 copies, imagine what you could do?!

3 — To include you on our journey. As a not-for-profit community paper, it’s your publication. So, while we might hold the responsibility of keeping it alive, your part is just as important.

I think we’ve done the final part pretty well. To be fair, when I look back on all that we’ve achieved, it’s often the big projects that have gained my affection (they were the squeaky wheels). Projects like raising funds to get Vili a dog, the Book Of Life cookbook, the skateboard design competition with Gippsland Art Gallery, the Meaningful Post campaign and supporting Gippsland Emergency Relief, as well as our support of several Gippsland Community Leadership Program initiatives. The list goes on...

“...showcasing works of nearly 100 talented people.”

Yet, right under our eye, we miss the obvious. It’s the voice we’ve given through the stories we’ve told about everyday people doing extraordinary things, our beautiful places and our well-crafted products. Through 19 editions, we’ve developed over 500 stories spanning more than 600,000 words, showcasing the works of nearly 100 talented people. To sum it up, we’ve grabbed a pretty damn big spotlight and we’ve shone it in our region. As a result, I feel people are beginning to see the Gippsland that we could see all along.

When we talk about bringing you on the journey and your ownership of this publication, those successes are yours to share. The truth about business is that it’s often one step forward and two steps backwards. There’s no dessert without dinner. There’s no success without failure.

Twelve months ago, we embarked on a journey to build a sustainable Gippslandia business model. In theory, the model was sound. It included launching an online store that features our region’s brilliant creatives — helping them whilst helping us. It looked at building our subscriber base, a membership model and making adjustments to our advertising model. The aims were quite humble: to make enough money to pay the people we need in order to keep this fire burning.

To implement this business model we built a great team. Rowenna Dunn looking after our partnerships, her partner Alyson chipped in and helped out with the online store and Lacey Yeomans has done a great job with our online presence and social media. They’ve had to work together at a time when ‘together’ wasn’t an option. They’ve had to think on their feet and adapt to the constantly changing environment for us, our partners, our distributors and our readers. They’re a brilliant team.

Subscribe to Gippslandia

Sadly, we’ve been unable to reach our targets. Fallen short or to use a blunt, but accurate, term — failed. Now as a team, we’ll be forced to scale back, regroup and reconsider our future.

We’re not alone; many of the businesses and people we’re close to have done it really tough in the past few months, probably more so after the Covid lockdowns. People are exhausted, we’re feeling that ourselves.

“How much does passion cost?”

Last quarter, I shared with you the crossroads that Gippslandia seems to be headed towards. The crossroads are here. At this stage, we see three options going forwards:

1 — Scale Back: Just get back to the core business of running the publication and giving you the stories you love to read.

2 — Push on: Back ourselves, try to find funding, partnerships and resources to continue doing the projects and community initiatives that the Gippslandian team have come to love. Essentially, creating positive stories, not just sharing them.

3 — Wrap up: Pick a date in the future, discuss with our stakeholders and print our last edition.

They’re all real outcomes, some more preferable than others. Ultimately, it’s the leadership of Gippslandia that needs to assess all options and make a decision.

To look out to the horizon, we’re currently distributing more copies than ever before, which are disappearing into readers’ hands faster and the amount of emails (and occasional handwritten letter) we’re receiving in support of Gippslandia has been overwhelming.

The need couldn’t be greater. But how much does passion cost?

We’ll keep you posted.


If there is something in particular that you wish to know or discuss, please get in touch and I’ll either address it here in a future column or via email at
md@gippslandia.com.au.


Gippslandia - Issue No. 19

Find, Subscribe or Download

Did you enjoy this article? Let us know on Facebook or Instagram.

More in

    Gippsland

Share this article

FacebookTwitterEmail
FacebookTwitterEmail

Read this next

ArticleBusiness

Helping hands.

Here we are, the end of 2020, we've been through a bit, and like you all, we've had a few... Read more


More in Business

FeatureBusiness

The death of lifelong employment.

The old rules of employment may have died, and the evolving workplace may be tough, but don’t give... Read more

Support Gippslandia

Support from our readers is what keeps the lights on and the printing presses running.

Support

Browse topics

Food & Drink

Explore regions

East Gippsland Shire

Partners

Gippslandia is made possible thanks to our supporting partners. They are businesses that believe in the value of sharing optimistic tales from our great region. We encourage you to support them in return, as without them, Gippslandia wouldn’t exist.

About Gippslandia

Gippslandia is a community, non-profit publication. We curate an ever-optimistic take on regional, national and global issues, in a local context. Leaving you feeling like a Gippslandia local, no matter where you’re from. Read more

© 2021 Gippslandia, All rights reserved