We asked 40 of our readers and contributors ‘What does the Mountain Views Mail mean to you?’ to mark the paper’s 40th anniversary.
You’ll find their answers throughout the print edition and will soon see them online, too.
The responses provide a great snapshot of the diverse range of community connections the Mail team has forged over the years.
They’ve been really heart-warming, humbling and inspiring to read, and have made me think about what the Mountain Views Mail means to me.
Like the entire Mail stable, this masthead starts and ends with community.
Our role is to provide the community with the information it needs and to share the stories it doesn’t realise it craves – stories about local opportunities, successes and efforts.
I first came into contact with the Mountain Views Mail back in 2008 when I landed a role on sister paper the Ranges Trader Mail.
Production processes have changed a lot since then, as have the ways we disseminate news.
Fewer eyes pass over our stories before they enter the public sphere – often only our own – and our readers are no longer satisfied with a weekly fix of the local events and issues.
We bring readers their local news online as soon as we possibly can, with the importance of accuracy front of mind.
We collate the stories that have appeared online throughout the week to produce the hard copy that hits the streets on Tuesdays – but that doesn’t mean the content is old news.
Stories develop as the week rolls on and we continually update them, often using comments from our online readers to enhance our reports and spark new angles.
That community interaction is something local papers like the Mountain Views Mail have always done so well.
When a story breaks we don’t just breeze in, cover it and move onto the next one.
We stick with it and follow up with those affected over coming days, weeks, months – even years.
We build relationships and grow to understand the community.
Over the course of four decades, this has made us a part of the community – and that’s how we like it.
If you’d like to let us know what the Mail means to you, email editor@mailnewsgroup.com.au or send Mail News Group a message on Facebook.
– Casey Neill, editor
