Mackay Daily Mercury relaunch: Newspaper profits to go to charity

Profits from the first edition of the relaunched Merc on Friday will go to a much-loved Mackay charity. Here’s why you should get involved.

From Friday, your Daily Mercury will be back on shelves in newsagents, supermarkets, service stations and other retail outlets.

It’s been a long journey since we announced on May 7 your beloved print edition would be revived as a weekly publication.

It is an extension of our commitment to you, but made possible through your continued support of our journalism.

A lot of hard work goes into relaunching a print product and we’re really proud of where we are at. We cannot wait to share it with you on Friday, August 27.

Daily Mercury staff (from top left, clockwise): Journalist Janessa Ekert, Editor Rae Wilson, Deputy Editor Tara Miko, journalist Lillian Watkins, journalist Heidi Petith and journalist Matthew Forrest.

We will be unashamedly hyperlocal and prove we’re for you; as we have been for 155 years.

But this first paper will be extra special because we want to give our profits from Daily Mercury sales on launch day — Friday August 27 — back to the community.

We are excited to be partnering with Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Mackay Hospital Foundation in their push for a family room at Mackay Base Hospital.

This week we have shared with you stories about why we chose this cause and the families who will benefit from it.

By buying our paper on Friday, you’ll help raise much-needed funds for the Ronald McDonald House Charities – Mackay Family Room.

McDonald’s Mackay’s Niki Ramsay (left) won the auction for Viliami Foketi's match-worn jersey after Mackay Meteors defeated Cairns in the NBL1 North last month. Mackay basketball fans showed their love and support for their community of hoopers last month with more than $30,000 raised in the post-match singlet auction. The Hamburglar-themed singlets were a part of a McDonald’s initiative to raise money for the new Ronald McDonald Family Room at Mackay Base Hospital.

For the past 20 years, the media has tried to imagine how the internet fits into a newspaper world; this has been the exact opposite process.

What we have done is imagine how a printed newspaper fits into a digital world – where we have been solely operating for the past 14 months.

Our audiences have embraced our digital news and this has led us to reinvest and reimagine the role a printed newspaper could play.

This new Friday edition gives our communities a running start at the weekend.

It’s a way to plan all the things you want to do on Saturday and Sunday, from events to open houses.

But its value will not expire on Saturday – you’ll be able to sit down over the weekend to digest longer reads, fill in the puzzles and craft your letter to the editor on whichever issue gets you going.

We are not bringing back the Friday paper. It’s a completely new product with a new mindset and a new role.

It has forced us to really focus on the role of a printed product in terms of that physical connection with a person as an individual but also the broader community.

The Mackay Daily Mercury will continue to break stories online but will now have a Friday print edition to complement its digital offering. Picture: Tony Martin

We are imagining a world that is not print or digital – but print AND digital.

Our print product is now a companion to our digital product. It will also complement our sister publication The Courier Mail which will still carry our Mackay stories in print throughout the week.

We will continue to break Mackay stories online at dailymercury.com.au but we will expand and explain the most important parts of it for a printed product.

It will carry the best of our local stories told throughout the week, giving you unrivalled access to the news that matters to you: what’s happening in our courts, our council, business openings and closures, sport, and your community stories filled with heart.

We will have an eight-page TV guide, bring back some of your favourite puzzles and provide the best news of the week – the stories our readers, you, tell us matter through mouse clicks every day.

Our advertisers have been demanding a return to print and the feedback and support we have received already has been terrific.

Our digital transition was, for many, a challenge but one most of you embraced with gusto and enthusiasm and we thank you for that.

Your digital subscription gives you access to the news as it happens, and the recent website changes have no doubt improved your reader experience.

For those who prefer to read a curated form of our news, your trusted and beloved Daily Mercury paper will be back on shelves from Friday.

As always, drop me an email on [e-mail] if you have any questions or feedback.