Nyssa Stadtmiller has taken over the Editing duties at the South West Slopes Times which encompasses the Twin Town Times, Coota Times, Young News, Boorowa Times, Yass Valley Times, Junee Independent and the Gundagai Times mastheads. This role will be for the majority of 2025 but likely beyond.
Nyssa said, “I am excited to announce that I have taken over the role of Editor at your favourite Newspaper from last week’s edition onwards, and I look forward to serving the communities that my team and I represent across our seven major towns and many villages, in telling your stories, and recording your history. As an independent owner of a media business, our team is aware that we must work with the community to get the job done. We welcome contributed stories and photos and love building relationships wherever possible.”
“I have been working alongside staff at the paper for approximately ten years contributing my time and my ideas. More formally and more recently, I undertook a joint Twin Town Times/ Federal Government funded Cadetship in 2019. I have been involved in all facets of the business from Administration, Design, Layout, Website uploads and Social Media to writing small and large pieces for the Times’ mastheads and the Junee Independent. 2024 saw the addition of Young and Boorowa. During the last half decade I have immersed myself in the world of local news and my family will continue to do so for the benefit of the communities in the region who were left without a voice or an option. During my time at the paper I have helped establish and expand the Coota Times, Yass Valley Times, Junee Independent, Boorowa Times and Young News.”
“The South West Slopes Times (SWST) will be covering news from the ACT border and beyond to the Wagga border and beyond. Under our mastheads we will continue to bring you news from home and next door, from Boorowa and Young in the north, Harden and Coota in the centre, Junee to the west, Yass to the east and Gundagai in the south, on to Tumut. The South West Slopes Times will cover an enormous region with a population of more than 50,000 people and a geographic area of more than 17,000 square kilometres across four local government areas. It’s a huge job for our team of casuals, permanent part timers, full-timers and a large group of much-loved contributors, who the SWST greatly appreciates. It’s an area larger than Vanuatu, Jamaica, East Timor and Lebanon and about the same size as Kuwait and Fiji.”
With our main office located in Harden, we are no more than about an hour from all of the major townships we cover. You can check out our new mother website which has links to each of our seven major websites which cover the towns and their associated villages. If you have a news lead, tip or scoop, contact the South West Slopes Times via the contact form on the website or by calling 0413 763 216. We often produce from between 44 to 52 pages between each of the towns and the responsibility of taking over the role is not lost on me. I would like to thank Matthew for his work guiding the paper for the majority of its history. We are offering digital subscriptions again this year which will include all seven towns with options of 3 months $30, 6 months $60 and 12 months $120 months. Please email membership@southwestslopestimes.com.au
“Our business brings in revenue from sales of the paper both digitally and in print and by advertising sales both digitally and in print. Last year we gave away $1750 in prizes to our readers alongside 21 subscriptions across our seven mastheads, three in each major town. We had great engagement with our readers and many put the money to good use.”
Most disappointingly and unfair has been the fact that the paper has continued to not secure advertising from Hilltops Council on a permanent basis. It is now well in to year 8 where this has occurred. They have taken a contract with another media outlet. All other Councils support the paper on a regular basis. Hilltops Council has taken some adverts sporadically in the past, however, they continue in my opinion to show favouritism to other outlets with less experience in the region or a shorter history. There is little we can do here, but it’s unfortunate that the Council feels that you (our readers) do not deserve to have relevant Council information in your local paper. Mismanagement of the towns and villages in the readership area of three of our mastheads has been the hallmark of Hilltops Council since its inception. We will continue to do our best to keep you informed but if we were to print adverts disguised as media releases we would not generate the revenue needed to stay afloat. We must use our resources wisely to ensure a strong media business in a changing environment.”
Make no mistake, 2025 will be a challenging year and we can only survive with your support yet again. Buy a copy each week or take a subscription up online. Take a traditional classified celebrating marriages and birthdays, anniversaries and on a more mournful note, ensure that funeral notices and memorials are included. Not only does it record our history it keeps the paper chugging along. For small and larger businesses we have some amazing packages we can offer you inclusive of commercials and promotional videos which can be shown to our audience across our seven Facebook pages and Websites and across yours. This can reach thousands of people and potential customers. Let us help you tell your story and get your message out to your customers and your audience through engaging with us.”
“I’d like to welcome you to the South West Slopes Times which will provide you all of your local news. We have completed 11 years in total and we look forward to embarking on year 12.
Yours Sincerely Nyssa