The Echo: online daily news source Echonetdaily
and free weekly newspaper The Byron Shire Echo.
Echonetdaily
Echonetdaily is your independent source of local news on the NSW north coast, covering the Northern Rivers including the Tweed Shire, Byron Shire, Lismore and Ballina Shire.
Launched in August 2011 and drawing on over 28 years of experience producing the iconic Byron Shire Echo and other publications, Echonetdaily is the best place to get your local news, national news, world news and informative articles. We have thought-provoking columns, entertainment news, the most comprehensive gig guide showing what’s on in the north coast, and an archive of entertaining and compelling local videos. We also have an online restaurant guide to Byron and the region called The Good Life, covering food, wine and travel, service directory, classified ads and more.
From Byron Bay to Murwillumbah, Nimbin to Lennox Head, Kingscliff to Mullumbimby, Tweed Heads to Bangalow, Ballina to Coolangatta, Lismore and beyond, Echonetdaily has you covered!
In August 2013 Echonetdaily revamped its website with a new format improving functionality and compatibility with mobiles and other devices. More detailed information on the new website can be found in About the new Echonetdaily.
The Byron Shire Echo
The Byron Shire Echo is a free weekly independent tabloid newspaper that is published in the Byron Shire, New South Wales, Australia.
The Brunswick Valley Echo, as the newspaper was first known, was founded in 1986 as a result of marijuana raids by the NSW Police in the valleys behind Mullumbimby. Despite reports that the police were acting aggressively and illegally, news media refused to cover the story, so local resident Nicholas Shand founded the paper as a civil rights watchdog. Co-founder David Lovejoy continued that policy after Shand’s death in 1996.
The Echo has consistently campaigned in favour of the environment and against developer-driven government, local and state, which so often proves to be corrupt. Along the way it has always stood for free speech and personal liberty, scorning the war on drugs and mocking the war on terror. Although the newspaper has strong policies of factual accuracy and openness to correction, it allows a wide variety of unorthodox opinion to be aired.
Over the last three decades The Echo has grown steadily and currently distributes 24,500 copies every Wednesday. More information on the Byron Shire Echo can be found on our About The Byron Shire Echo page.
In 1991 Shand, Lovejoy and photographer Jeff Dawson ventured south of Byron Shire to create the Lismore Echo. This paper was subsequently sold to its employees and renamed the Northern Rivers Echo. It was purchased by Australian Provincial Newspapers in December, 2008.
The Echo published another newspaper in the Tweed Shire from August 2008 to January 2012. The Tweed Shire Echo was similar in format and outlook to its sister paper.
August 2011 saw the launch of The Echo‘s online daily newspaper, Echonetdaily, which is a weekday news service, also emailed to subscribers, covering the Northern Rivers region.
Only a few independent country newspapers still survive in individual or family hands. Most weeklies are owned by corporations whose interests do not coincide with those of the residents in their area. The Echo, through the commitment of its staff and writers, endeavours to maintain the tradition of quality journalism with a social conscience both in its weekly free newspaper and its daily online news service.
The Echo is totally owned by people who live in Byron Shire. The shareholders are: the Shand family estate 43%, David Lovejoy 36%, Jeff Dawson 10%, Ziggi Browning 5%, Ewan Willis 2.5%, Simon Haslam 2.5%, Renee Fernley 1%.
