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Introduction to The Think Tank

Welcome to the Think Tank - Whyalla's free, independent and totally awesome community newspaper!

It's a bold social experiment designed to tackle those big issues that are all too often swept under the proverbial carpet. You know the ones...poverty, inequality, drug use, teen-pregnancy, sex-education, mental health, the environment, social justice, racism and reconciliation. Topics that are usually ignored or glossed over by the mainstream media, problems seldom given the focus and consideration they so desperately require. We aim to fix that oversight.

The Think Tank is also a chance for the community to speak for itself - and, to blatantly paraphrase Walt Whitman - a way for you, kind reader, to contribute a verse to the powerful play that is life.

But hey - that's just for starters!

As a completely independent newspaper, we can go places commercial publications (and paper boys/ girls/ rabid homing pigeons) fear to tread! Wanna get political? Do it! Got an opinion on what the council should really be doing with all that money? Fantastico! Or perhaps you've some philosophical advice you're itching to impart? Get writing!

If you've got a recipe or a photograph, a cartoon or a delicious page of prose, we can print that too. Maybe you just watched a great DVD and would like to write up a review? Or perhaps you've been to a concert. heard a band or seen a play recently and want to tell everyone about it! We'll set aside a space in the paper just for you.

This is all possible because The Think Tank is run by the people. It's democratic, it's free. It's incorruptible (well, hopefully). Our purpose is to inspire and educate, not to profiteer and avoid criticizing certain (cough) industrial (cough - bloody air pollution) advertisers. This is an abrasive, progressive publication born to challenge the status quo, give the decision makers something to think about while simultaneously, and unapologetically, propelling Whyalla into a new, sustainable and altogether brighter future. We hope you can join us.

History of The Think Tank

The Think Tank doesn't really have much of a history to be honest, as we've only managed to produce two issues so far - and the last edition was released in Novemeber 2007! Hopefully we can turn that around this year though - er..wish us luck!

The idea to make a newspaper first popped into my head in late 2005, when the Whyalla News was going through a particularly bad patch of under-reporting - so many things left unsaid. So many questions left unasked.

One day , I decided to do something about it.

'Right then', I said to myself. There's an opportunity here. A chance - not to make money, but to do something good. Something really positive. Something...unexpected. Something that hasn't been done here for a very, very long time.

I wanted to shake things up a bit!

I wanted to reach out and throttle the complacency, passivity and apathy out of Whyalla like a monkey rattling a coconut tree.

So - I took my passion for graphic design, activism and creative writing, put them all in a big, iron-bottomed black-cauldron, and started stirring that bubbly mess like a madman.

And so, with the help of a few good friends, most notably my co-editor Jennifer Reeves (otherwise known as - 'the one who can actually write and spell real good') , a newspaper was born!

Originally, I was going to call it 'the natural selection' - the NEXT EVOLUTION!

Thankfully, my trusty dumb-ass-idea detector was working really well at the time, so in the end, I decided against it.

The final name 'The Think Tank' was actually ripped off from an episode of MacGyver if you must know!

Anyway, It took some time. It took some effort. And it took some personal savings (and a small grant from the Whyalla city council). But heck - we did it. We somehow managed to produce and print a professional, tabloid-sized newspaper with only a couple of people at the helm and a couple of rapidly aging computers - and we did it all without a jot of profit.

I'm still enormously proud. And maybe a little embarrassed.

Muppets indeed! :-)

Next Issue

I can't show you any photos of the next edition yet because as per tradition, we're trying to keep it under wraps until the very last minute. I can tell you however, that it's going to be a bumper 'Save Point Lowly' Special Edition - and packed like a pub on a hot day with heaps of exciting and engaging stuff; including bucket-loads of public opinion, a bunch of juicy personal essays, a fair-old whack of professional commentary, and heaps of stories, photos, artwork, interviews cartoons and more - all in honour of protecting our most spectacular, most visited and most revered piece of local coastline: the Point Lowly Peninsula.

But wait - we need your help!

Printing a newspaper is a terribly expensive exercise unfortunately (if you don't happen to own your own printing press).

So, that means we need to find a reliable source of funding to pay for our production costs.

In short, we need around three and a half grand per issue. So we've decided to offer a few pages to the business community for private advertising. Here's our current rate card for black and white advertisements:

The paper is approximately the size of the Whyalla News (tabloid) but with these added benefits!

1. The Think Tank is a unique publication with very high production values
2. Likely to inspire considerable public interest and discussion.
3. The Think Tank is distributed free in Whyalla and the surrounding region
4. We will print between 5000 and 10,000 copies
5. Superb value and coverage.
6. Designed by a graphic artist for greater visual impact - what good is an advert if it doesn't grab attention?
7. And finally, your money will be going towards a very good cause! Extra cookies for you then.

So, if you're interested in advertising in The Think Tank, please, please, please drop me a line as soon as you can by clicking here

Thank you so, so much for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Cheers!