Fairfax launched WAToday online newspaper for the WA market yesterday. WAToday joins Perth Now, an online paper launched by News Ltd last year and Perth Norg, a citizen journalism site service Western Australia.
Not so long ago a publisher wanting to enter the market would have needed printing presses and an expensive distribution infrastructure. Today, the barriers are all but gone and new markets can be opened for little in the way of capital investment.
Newsagents ought to take note of what has just happened in Western Australia and what happened last year in Queensland. While our channel is important to newspaper publishers, we are not part of their current expansion plans. We have to make our own future, as it should be.