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It’s 27 years since I started work at the Gazette. Seven years since I left. So much of
my life happened while I was there. Being part of the Gazette – as a sub, chief of
staff, editor, journalist - was woven into my identity. Similarly over 135 years the
Gazette was woven into the Hawkesbury community, only loosening its hold when
people turned to more immediate forms of news online.
But online news didn’t cover the smaller news and was just a different product. It was in the Gazette that you wanted to see your child’s picture or your name published (just not on the court page!).
If your exploits appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, they would have far greater coverage, but not amongst the people who knew you. If you were in the Gazette, it was a small but warm sort of local fame.
Unlike most of social media, the people who produced the Gazette were real
journalists, with real sub-editors checking the copy, making sure people’s names and titles and place names were spelt correctly, that stories were fair and balanced and that statistics were from reputable sources, interpreted correctly and didn’t have an extra zero.
The people who worked on the Gazette were accountable to those we wrote about –
we met them in the supermarket, or walking down Richmond Street. Our stories had our names on them.
We not only covered the hard news – police stories, flood coverage and RAAF Base
triumphs - we also cared who marched on Anzac Day, we were there to photograph
Easter bonnet parades, and we regularly brought you instalments of the district’s
history. We were the community’s memory and photo archive.
With democracy under attack across the world, an accountable, trusted local paper
is what is needed to report reliably and diligently on local government and politics.
There is no accountability without visibility.
It’s wonderful news the Gazette has been brought back to the visibility of those who represent the Hawkesbury. Everyone should get behind the new Gazette, take part with contributions and tip offs and make it their own, so it once again becomes a comprehensive mirror of its community.
