It's only a bit over a week until the first edition of our new newspaper Newswatch comes out and I hope a lot reading this are looking forward to seeing what it's like.

Newswatch is going to be a bit different to traditional newspapers in a number of ways and I'd like to tell you about of those differences here.

I believe in the user pays model and always have, but who is the user? In the case of newspapers, I believe the user is the person who uses the newspaper for advertising purposes not the reader. I don't believe readers should have to pay for a newspaper, either for the hard copy form or the online version. I believe the responsibility for funding a newspaper rests firmly with anyone who wants to use the newspaper to further their business or service. For me, charging readers for a newspaper would be like charging people to go into a shopping centre to shop. Just like the shops in a shopping centre pay rents etc. to be there, and with the expectation that the shopping centre will attract loads of shoppers, businesses wanting newspaper readers to respond to information or advertising in a newspaper should pay for the privilege to be there. If that doesn't make plain good sense I don't know what would.

Be that as it may, readers throughout time have paid to buy newspapers at the same time businesses have paid to place advertising in them. Publishers who charge people to buy their newspaper and then charge advertisers to advertise in it are getting it both ways in my view. Given the way traditional newspapers like the Central Western Daily appear to be slowly self-destructing, I think those days are over and a new model is required. That's where Newswatch may play a role.

Newswatch will be free for readers to pick up, just like Orange City Life is now. If enough readers pick it up and read it, word will get out and it will then follow that advertisers will want to advertise in it. I believe advertisers will still want to advertise in a newspaper provided it has a decent audience reading it and that the cost to advertise in it represents good value for money. That will be our aim.

That said, many businesses have enjoyed a good measure of free advertising in newspapers over the years, and to be honest it's a very sneaky way of advertising and in my view, it lacks integrity. Of course, it's in no way illegal or even dishonest, but in my view it's also not a noble way to go about business. I should also point out that not all advertising or promotion that is presented in the form of a story or news fits into the category I'm eluding too, but I can assure a lot does. Our policy in Orange City Life, and now with Newswatch, will always be to happily consider this type of information based on certain criteria. If we deem it's warranted to pay for the privilege, we'll charge an appropriate fee, if we deem it's not warranted, we'll provide the space free.

The bottom line is, we consider the 'user' of our product is anyone who wants to use our publications to promote, publicise or market their event, business or service for commercial gain - we consider our readers as a valued audience that these users will want to reach. This way we'll bring users and readers together for their mutual benefit.