Judge’s Comments

They say, “necessity is the mother of invention” and this inventive spirit shines through in the 2025 Barnet

Award for Best Community Advertising Promotion.

Newspapers are changing and they are no longer just selling advertising and reporting news. They are immersing

themselves in their communities and championing causes, and they are doing it in most innovative ways.

Innovation was a hallmark of the leading contenders in this award, ranging from a Halloween event run by the Port

Lincoln Times to a Local Legends calendar published by the Southern Argus.

The Halloween CarnEVIL fundraiser was the brainchild of staff member Laura Theodore and was staged at Gardner’s

Winery. It featured events for young and old – “Candy and Clowns” for children and “Horror Maze” for adults.

Attendants at the event are said to have enjoyed a “spook-tastic” time while raising some $10,000 for the Ronald

McDonald House charity.

Laura is to be congratulated for looking outside the box in launching and promoting CarnEVIL which will no doubt

become a regular event on the Port Lincoln social calendar.

It was this inventiveness which swayed the award in the Port Lincoln Times favour.

Just a tad behind, in second spot and highly commended, was the Southern Argus which acknowledged its hard-working

emergency services volunteers in its Strathalbyn and District “Local Legends” calendar.

Good quality photographs were a feature of the calendar and accompanying promotional stories run in the newspaper

to support the promotion.

Tara Nash, who was the driving force behind the project, would have been thrilled to pass on $2500 to the volunteer

groups, but more than this, to salute the work of fire fighters and others involved in the emergency services sector.

These people are the unsung heroes of our communities and can be relied on in times of need.

Also commended were the York Peninsula Times GROUNDED Art Festival program, which seems to go from strength-to-

strength each year, The Centralian Today’s “Getting Stuff Done” promotional series on the Mparntwe Alice Springs

Community Foundation and the 24-page 2025 Barossa Vintage Festival special publication produced by The Leader.