August 8 marks our 450th edition as Coast Community News continues to bring you all the latest local news online and in print every week.
The company has seen some changes this year, with new ownership seeing Operations Manager David Abrahams take over as Managing Editor.
He has taken the company’s digital news services to a national audience by distributing the publication of local stories across services such as Google’s News Showcase, Apple News, Twitter/X, Threads, Facebook and numerous syndicated news services as well as three local radio stations.
CCN maintains an archive of over 21,000 local stories and each month our news articles are listed in over two million search results around the country, leading to more than 150,000 full articles being read on coastcommunitynews.com.au
Bringing you the news each week is our journalistic team, headed by Terry Collins as Print Editor.
Joining her in gathering the top news stories are Sue Murray, Denice Barnes and Merilyn Vale.
Collins has been with Coast Community News for five years, following a career spanning almost 40 years as a journalist and editor with News Limited and a brief 18-month “retirement”, during which time she realised she wasn’t really ready to retire at all.
A Coastie since 1976, Collins has been covering regional news for decades and has a deep knowledge of ongoing issues and the things that matter most to readers.
Sue Murray’s career has always been devoted to community news.
She formerly worked for various mastheads of Cumberland Newspapers (now a part of News Limited) and was editor of two, as well as working for Messenger Newspapers in Adelaide, Community Newspapers in Perth, and the Broome Advertiser and Kimberley Times when she was travelling for six years in a caravan around Australia.
She joined the CCN team in February, 2019, working originally on the former Wyong Regional Chronicle and Peninsula News.
Murray retired in November 2021, but came back to CCN on a part-time basis in April, 2022, just before the Chronicle published its last edition and was incorporated into CCN.
Denice Barnes has more than 35 years’ experience as a print journalist, covering a number of positions as both an editor and senior reporter.
Barnes has specialised in several fields including health, council reporting, feature writing and politics.
More recently she has worked as a volunteer for several not-for-profit Central Coast organisations.
Merilyn Vale has a huge pedigree in regional newspapers, having been a journalist, editor and Chief of Staff for Cumberland Newspapers (now part of News Limited), Editor in Chief for Quest Newspapers in Brisbane and a journalist and trainer for Fairfax Newspapers.
These days she is a dedicated Council watcher, running her own website and Facebook page as well as writing probing and comprehensive Council stories for Coast Community News.
Brad Yee puts the paper together, placing the editorial content and selling much of the advertising as well as designing some of it.
He has been a graphic designer for more than 10 years.
Before moving to the Coast, he lived on a 650-acre sheep and cattle farm running an 1830s cottage as a bed and breakfast while freelancing in graphic design.
He moved with his young family to the Coast in January, 2022, and came on board with CCN as a graphic designer in April of that year.
Six months later, he also took over advertising sales.
CCN is supported by our tech guru J and Sophie Walshe in accounts and a sterling team of delivery staff capably spearheaded by Anthony Wagstaffe.
As we celebrate our 450th edition, we look forward to bringing you the latest regional news – both in print and online – well into the future.
Congratulations, you all do a great job.
Local news is so important to a community and the on-line and print editions are fabulous.
WELL DONE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK