Award category - Building Communities

Footage: Upbeat music plays as the video moves from a blue opening screen with the Telstra logo to the Award presenter.  

Presenter speaks: Um, the 2023 Telstra Best of Business awards, national Building Communities winner is. Blank. I'm just kidding. It's Region Group.  

Footage: Recipient walks past tables of well-dressed people and onto the stage to accept her award. 

Recipient speaks Well, well, well. Thank you. Thank you to Telstra for creating such energy and space for small business to flourish and such meaningful recognition for the huge engine that small business creates in our community. Thank you to the judges for their time, their energy, their effort for putting us through our paces and for being extraordinarily encouraging. 

About seven years ago, two tech business blokes from Canberra had a dream and it was a pretty improbable one. In the middle of the biggest industry disaster we've ever seen, they thought. I wonder if we could build a media business. Could we find a way to ensure that instead of stripping news and journalists out of communities, we put them back in? Instead of centralising stories and information, sacking the experienced staff, filling the news pages with stories from somewhere else. How about we make it completely local? How about we serve our community? And instead of saying to themselves over a beer, nah, that it would never work, they went out and did it. 

And here we are. Dreams do come true. Region is now a financially sustainable, community focused media business that is disrupting the industry for public good. 

Thank you to Region's co-CEOs, Tim White and Michael McGuigan for daring to have very big dreams. And then the brains and the courage and the sheer chutzpah to make them real. Region is a very special place to work. It's a good business, but that's because we have such good humans making it work. 

So, thank you to Team Region, our magnificent, quirky, eclectic team of people who live, work and breath service to our community through their strong relationships, their high standards and their good values. It's a business where we eat a lot of cake. We pat a lot of dogs. We laugh constantly and we could not be prouder of the culture we've built of respect, of flexibility, of coming to what we do with a good heart in service of others and being good neighbours. 

Thank you to all our partners business and not for profit. To everyone in Canberra, Wagga and now the Illawarra who's come with us on this journey and believes that we can challenge deeply ingrained old industry models to make a better, more effective storytelling platform for business and the community. 

We believe that trust and truth telling build real communities. That's why we built Region, because balanced independent media is the only business that can make change for everyone. We're a bit of a unicorn in the busted up, broken down Australian media industry, where 70% of closures in the past decade have been in regional communities. 

Our journalists are local, our content is local, our partners are local. And we think that independent, effective, strong local media is a cornerstone of democracy. That's because it creates equality of opportunity. It creates a democratic voice for all citizens, not just the educated elite. It provides access to justice and fair process by calling power to account. 

Good media matters. We are so proud we are doing our part to change the narrative in this country. Thank you to the other state finalists. And when Region arrives in your neck of the woods and we're coming, let's talk. We can help you with your big ideas. 

That's what we do every day. 

Footage: The audience applauds a cheers as the video transitions to a blue end screen with the words ‘Best of Business Awards’ and the Telstra logo.  

Audio – music: Telstra jingle plays.