As from next week a media Era will end in the Clarence Valley as 30 years of the free distribution of the Clarence Valley Independent comes to an end.

Readers will be asked to pay $2 for their weekly copy of the newspaper.

Increasing production costs have left management with no choice but to levy the charge, but readers will also see some changes to the newspaper format, including more pages and added features.

The newspaper will retain all the current content, including community contributed articles and Grafton and Lower Clarence based journalists.

Readers will also be able to take advantage of a home delivery subscription service available in selected areas.

The decision to make the CV Independent a paid publication comes after the impact of post Covid years and subsequent lose of advertising revenue, and increased costs to produce the newspaper, have made it financially impossible to continue the current business model.

To those advertisers who have continued to support your local independent newspaper, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It is fair to say that without the support of those businesses we would not have survived this period.

Much has been written since Covid about the demise of regional media in Australia and well in excess of 120 newspapers have shut their doors in the past four years, leaving local communities in towns big and small without a print media source.

We do not intend adding to that number.

Unfortunately, there are those out there who believe the best way of getting their local news is via social media. Of course, we all know you don’t get “fake news” on social media… don’t we?

The CV Independent is the most legitimate way of getting your “true” local news. Take for example our local council news. If your read social media posts, there are plenty of contributors expressing an anti-council sentiment or generally “knocking” council. On the other hand, if you read council’s website or their media posts, you will generally only get “good” council news. This newspaper gives you the “real” story.

Here at the “Independent” we intend publishing real stories way into the future.