DELIVERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF CONTENT

DEER DIARY Sean Kilkenny

Volume 49, Issue One, heralds a material change to Australian Deer.

As of 2024, we will now produce quarterly publications instead of bi-monthly. This represents the biggest change to Australian Deer since ADA moved from the small A5 format to the A4 magazine in 2015.

Previously, the smaller A5 format ran from 1976 to 2014, covering 39 Volumes, and served the Association well. In 2014, the ADA realised that change was needed to modernise and create a marketable offering that could be sold in newsagents nationwide. To also help with this broader appeal and to make the magazine relevant to the new cohort of stakeholders it gets delivered to, the content shifted from what could be considered more internal communications material to an outwards communication piece.

With this new and exciting magazine now available, it was put to good use nationwide. An extensive list of stakeholders receives their copies to help keep them up to date with the latest happenings in the deer world and ADA’s stance and consideration on such topics. It became a key feature of our advocacy work, providing an ongoing point of contact and engagement. This extends across the spectrum from Politicians, bureaucrats, regulators, game managers, and others involved in the recreational deer hunting industry.

This will continue with the change in production frequency, but as we did a decade ago, we acknowledge that there is a need for change, and we are proactively undertaking it. It is always better to change proactively rather than reactively. This is reflected in the consumption habits of our members, but also of our future potential members. All of them have seen their media consumption habits change as technology continues to deliver new and innovative ways to do so.

As The Deer People we need to adapt and be able to talk via the channels that members and prospective members are listening to. This change brings exciting opportunities as we look forward to expanding our podcasting platform and engaging with our audience, bringing them the content they like and need. The survey so many of you filled out in December provided a fantastic data set that we will use to refine the podcast and what we feature on it.

The shift towards the next generation of content will provide numerous opportunities, one of which will be that of timeliness. Inherently, magazines are not a source of breaking news or providing timely information on current affairs. This is where new technology solutions, such as podcasts, help bridge this gap and keep you, our members, updated on the latest events.

Members and others will then be able to form opinions and understanding from an informed point of view, helping to improve and uplift any topical conversation at the time. This is incredibly important; as the ADA, we have never shied from telling people what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear. And on a new and improved platform, we can meet this expectation better.

Instead of fighting progress, we will embrace it, make the most of it and ensure it is relevant to the next generation of deer hunters.