Traf News

It is a pleasure to be writing this article announcing the return of the Traf News because like so many of you, I really missed this paper when it went into recess last March.

Community newspapers are important because they provide information that major news outlets don’t provide and unlike social media, the paper can be picked up and browsed many times during its month-long life. There is also something familiar and comforting about ink on paper.

Traf News is your paper and it is our job to do the best we can to provide you with a paper you want to read. I expect we will get some aspects right and we will also make some errors but we welcome your feedback. If you like what we do, let us know. If you don’t like what we do, or think we are missing coverage that would interest you, please let us know. Use the email address at the end of this article to convey those thoughts and please, if you have something to say publicly, consider writing a letter to the editor.

My wife Susie Foletta and I have newspaper backgrounds and we moved to Trafalgar three years ago. We are retired, we have the appropriate backgrounds and skill sets so, it would have been remiss of us not to have a go at bringing this paper back to life. Someone needed to have a go at relaunching this newspaper, so Susie and I decided we would. And here it is.

The previous Traf News committee has been incredibly supportive and they have gone out of their way to make it as easy as possible for this paper to be reborn. You will have noticed it is now Traf District News, providing coverage for Trafalgar, Yarragon, Thorpdale and Willow Grove and is distributed to those four towns. Our coverage of those other towns is not as thorough as it could be in this issue, but we expect when our next issue comes out (February 1) we will have that under control.

Mick Bourke (OAM) started this paper 23 years ago and Mick has been in the office with me on a number of occasions and has provided material input. Liam Durkin has provided material for this issue despite being a busy bloke with three newspaper titles to manage in his full-time career with the Latrobe Valley Express. Our thanks go to them and the rest of the people who made this newspaper happen for so long.
And a very special thanks to the many advertisers in this issue, which make this paper possible. We are entirely reliant on advertising to produce Traf District News and it costs quite a lot of money to finance each issue, so we thank the advertisers for supporting us and we urge you to support them in return. We are a community after all and supporting each other is what communities do best.

Trevor Colvin
Publisher/Editor. Contact me at publisher@trafnews.com