Introducing The Pulse Illawarra
We want to tell the success stories, find out about the unique challenges facing our business owners and connect them to people who are solving problems.
Today, we’re launching The Pulse Illawarra, a new premium local business publication for thought leaders in the Illawarra.
Yes, it’s another local news title, but we hope you’ll find we’re something different. We aim to fill a much-needed gap in the Illawarra’s media market.
Janine Graham and I recognised the need to deliver high-quality, constructive journalism which delivers insightful content that enriches and supports the dynamic business landscape of the Illawarra.
We’ll keep you up to date on the big local issues that affect your business. We’ll provide in-depth interviews with local leaders and updates from key business events.
We promise you content you can’t get anywhere else that will help you make smart decisions for your business.
Why now?
The Illawarra is in a growth phase, and we want to be part of that. We want to tell the success stories, find out about the unique challenges facing our business owners and connect them to people who are solving problems.
We don’t see ourselves as direct competitors to other media players like the Illawarra Mercury, ABC Illawarra or Region Illawarra, but we understand the constraints faced by those organisations in a challenging media environment. We hope to tell the stories traditional local media are unable to tell.
Who is behind Pulse Illawarra?
I’m Gayle Tomlinson, the former editor of the Illawarra Mercury and a journalist with 30 years of experience working with the largest publishers in the UK and Australia. If you dig into the depths of my LinkedIn profile you’ll find I was industry reporter for the Newcastle Chronicle and business reporter for The Journal.
Think shipyards, coal mines, trade unions, Northern Rock, Newcastle Brown Ale, and a city that transformed itself from an industrial powerhouse to an innovative European City of Culture. You might recognise some themes.
Janine Graham is a former Deputy Editor of the Illawarra Mercury, who also has worked in the UK and numerous publications domestically. Her links to the Illawarra go back decades - to the extent she recalls farmland in Figtree and Gordie McLeod at the Snakepit.
What can we expect
Once subscribed to The Pulse Illawarra we send every story we write direct to your inbox, or if you’d prefer you can browse our ad-free website.
Our aim is to publish two to four times a week, but we’re not focused on volume. This is a quality play. We won’t be spamming your inbox. When you get something from us, it’s because we genuinely think it’ll be of interest to you.
What is Substack?
It’s perhaps unusual for a publisher to tell its audience about its publishing tool, but we’d like to share some behind-the-scenes information.
We’ve set up The Pulse Illawarra on Substack, a US-based platform that allows creatives to set up newsletters for their audience for free. For every subscription we sell, Substack takes 10 per cent.
Substack is an app, where you can follow lots of publications and writers from all over the world. It’s so popular it has 4m subscribers and is second after the New York Times in the list of the world’s biggest news publishers ranked by digital subscriptions.
Substack allows us to launch The Pulse Illawarra with no seed funding and low overheads. However, we are still reliant on our readers paying for access to our content.
How do I use Substack
You can go direct to our website - pulseillawarra.com.au - to see our content.
From time-to-time our website might push you to download Substack.
This is just an alternative way of seeing our content. If you do download the Substack app, it’ll allow you to receive notifications on your phone when we publish a new story.
You’ll also be able to follow other creatives publishing on the app.
This all sounds great. How do I support The Pulse?
If you like the sound of what we’re doing, then subscribe to support our journalism. You can choose to pay $20 a month or pay for a $200 annual subscription.
With your subscription, you’ll be given three gift subscriptions to give to someone you think could benefit from reading The Pulse.
Alternatively, you can partner with us. Invite us to your events, tell us your stories, sponsor a newsletter, or help us hire a full-time writer. Contact us to discuss.