Five Years For IN Noosa
After two weeks of barely any sleep, an abundance of stress and incredible pressure, IN Noosa Magazine founder and Editor-in-Chief Deb Caruso burst into tears when the first truckload of magazines rolled into her driveway. Jolene Ogle shares her insight into the initial idea and the journey since then.
Five years since that first delivery, we’re poised to celebrate our 21st edition of IN Noosa Magazine (and Deb no longer cries, thank goodness! Well, sometimes). She won’t want us to get all mushy, but this magazine you hold in your hands was born from a desire to connect people with place.
It’s rare in this busy world to meet someone who has a genuine love for people and a heartfelt joy for seeing
people succeed, but that’s Deb and IN Noosa Magazine is her way of lifting local businesses who trust us with their
very precious marketing dollars.
The idea for IN Noosa Magazine burst into Deb’s head when she realised there was no one to share the absolute plethora of stories about Noosa’s vibrant, unique and creative locals.
“I had returned to the intense corporate world after having my son, Maximus, but I started to think about what legacy I wanted to leave for him,” Deb recalls.
“I realised the corporate world wasn’t it. So, I decided to get more involved with the community. I started to do the PR for Slow Food Noosa and joined the social board for Noosa Biosphere Limited.
“Soon I was hosting a radio program called Voices of the Biosphere and it was here I realised there were just an abundance of locals with interesting stories.”
As Deb and her co-host Jasmin Boyd soon discovered, there was no shortage of stories on offer. Deb says Noosa also suffered from a branding issue with too many people thinking Noosa is only about “white linen, cashed-up retirees and chardonnay”.
“But that’s not the real Noosa,” Deb says.
“I wanted to set the record straight and really show locals and visitors just how special this place and it’s people are. I wanted to create a magazine that could connect the community, help everyone to feel a sense of place and purpose.”
Deb and her core team set to work creating a product that was uniquely Noosa: environmentally-responsible,
community-based and designed to best showcase local businesses to customers.
Today, IN Noosa Magazine is proud to be a leading example of eco-friendly media production. From the uncoated
paper on which these words sit, to our close relationship with Plastic Free Noosa, our continued support and participation in programs such as Noosa Eco Check, and our recycled timber magazine stands, being eco-friendly is one of our main driving forces.
As a former media buyer for major organisations, Deb knew IN Noosa Magazine needed to be authentic with a strong
distribution network and compelling content. It needed to earn the marketing dollars of local business owners by creating a magazine that was honest and engaging for our readers, their potential customers.
As Deb explains, we have always taken this responsibility seriously.
“IN Noosa Magazine has always been more than a magazine,” Deb says.
Indeed, IN Noosa Magazine has been read online almost 700,000 times since launching and the podcast Conversations IN Noosa has been listened to more than 12,000 times. IN Noosa Magazine offers digital support through an engaged social media following including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
The following has grown organically over the past five years; and subscribers to a free weekly newsletter designed to INform, INdulge and INspire number in the thousands.
If there is an event in Noosa, whether it’s big or small, you’ll find us there as we love to support local events. Noosa Food & Wine have chosen to print their program previews, and so have Noosa Open Studios, Noosa International Film Festival, Noosa Festival of Surfing and Floating Land, among others.
“For a small, tight-knit team, we have a long reach into the community,” Deb says proudly.
We have had some wonderful people work with us and we love that locals can contribute to the magazine.
“Writers such as Matt Golinski, Helen Flanagan and Katrina Thorpe are all experts in their fields, but they also live, work and play here. They write with authenticity, knowledge and passion and that is what sets us apart.”
We are also the only publication that offers free professional photography and ad creation for our clients; we are a cross media solution and we always feature a local artist, or an artist inspired by Noosa, on our front cover.
We also host a launch party every edition and we do this to thank our much-loved clients as well as create a relaxed space where local business owners can mingle and perhaps, create collaborations. We love that we are setting a new standard for local media, creating a place where businesses are supported and nurtured, and readers are treated with respect in the form of engaging content.
The process of creating each edition of IN Noosa Magazine is long, stressful and exhausting – kind of like having a baby – but we return each time renewed and ready to create the very best magazine we possibly can (…wine and cheese supplied in abundance by Deb certainly helps).
As we celebrate this, our 21st edition, it is with a knowledge in our hearts that we will see you again in another five years when we celebrate a decade of sharing Noosa’s best local stories. From the INpiring to the INformative and those times we want to INdulge, we are lucky to have an opportunity to connect our community to what’s happening around them.
And to you, our valued reader, thank you for choosing our magazine.
Please let us know what you think, love and want more of by completing our Reader Survey. Click here and you could also WIN a getaway to Gambaro Hotel!
