10 Years of IN Noosa Magazine
From five to ten, Melanie Rosettenstein speaks to founder and editor-in-chief of IN Noosa Magazine’s Deb Caruso about celebrating a decade of success, resilience and connecting communities through storytelling.
It’s been five years since we celebrated IN Noosa Magazine’s fifth birthday in September 2019 and as they say, ‘time flies when you’re having fun’. Five years later, and with a global pandemic, IN Publishing celebrates its tenth birthday as IN Noosa Magazine continues to grow. Now an impressive 180 pages, the magazine is the brainchild of Deb Caruso and Paul Bird, two seasoned marketing and communications experts who believe in the enduring power of storytelling to connect communities. Deb is a champion of print and, at a time when the world was turning a digital corner, she went old-school to capture the epitome of all that’s good IN Noosa.
Returning to work after having her son, Maximus (now 15), Deb identified that there was a need to support Noosa’s local businesses at a grassroots level.
“I was providing pro-bono PR services to Slow Food Noosa and serving on the Board of Noosa Biosphere, and helping a few local businesses with marketing,” Deb recalls. “I was meeting amazing people whose stories weren’t being told and I was frustrated by the lack of options and ROI in the existing media. Plus, I felt like ‘Noooosa’ had a bit of a brand crisis – it had been through amalgamation and had lost its sense of identity, even after de-amalgamation.
“I had this fire in my belly that Noosa needed something to be proud of – something to connect the community. I’ve always believed in the enduring power of print to provide that.”
Deb’s dream was keeping her up at night, so she started to rewrite the book on the traditional media model.
“It became clear to me that print media wasn’t dead, it had simply lost its purpose and was being driven by profit, not passion,” she said. “You absolutely need to be financially sustainable but not driven by money alone. The traditional model was so transactional – ‘buy an ad’ – and not based on building relationships and helping businesses to succeed.
“If a business chooses to invest in your product, you should do everything you can to ensure their success – if their business is doing well, so will yours. For us, it’s always been about helping to grow our clients’ businesses first, the rest will follow. You also need to respect and engage the readers and take them on the journey.”
So with passion and a strategic plan to grow the magazine within its means, it wasn’t long before Deb and a team of local contributors were celebrating a successful five years.
“By 2019 we had firmly established ourselves in the hearts and minds of our readers, printed more than 518 million pages across 22 editions, and had grown from 56 pages per edition to 156,” she said. “Living up to our mission to be more than a magazine, we had launched a podcast, our digital platforms were growing and events were selling out.”
Events, including launch parties with clients, wine lunches and VIP nights, were a key part of the plan to keep the IN Noosa brand active, engage readers and offer a return to businesses. With the business growing, Deb’s husband John left his radio career to add extra support in the business and at home. With the model right, the IN Noosa Board of Deb, Paul and now also John, made the commitment to launch a sister publication, Hello Sunshine Magazine, to service the Sunshine Coast community. To this end they entered – and won – the Sunshine Coast Business Awards in the Creative Industries category.
Poised to launch in the first quarter of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and plans for Hello Sunshine Magazine were paused. The lockdown was on, and businesses and borders were closing. Deb kept doing what she had set out to do – to support local businesses and connect communities through storytelling so the e-newsletter, social media and client communications went into overdrive and when lockdowns were lifted, IN Noosa Magazine was the only community print media still standing.
“It was clear we had a role to play so we drew on our expertise in producing directory-style guides such as Village Vibes for Peregian Beach to flip the traditional magazine model and produce The Guide to send the message that Noosa was still open for business,” Deb recalls. “We thought maybe we’d get 56 pages but we had to close the books at 180!
We worked day and night and turned it around in three weeks – somehow!”
Hello Sunshine Magazine was launched in December 2020, together with the 260-page VanillaFood: The Cookbook for local chef Nilla Tomkins. Just shy of four years later, and with a growing team of writers, designers and digital content creators, both IN Noosa and Hello Sunshine Magazines are thriving. This edition marks the three-billionth (yes!) pages being printed of more than 557,000 magazines! Each edition is consistently 180 pages and Deb says its about operating sustainably, honestly, putting passion before profit, and having a great team and the right type of clients.
“Our business is very structured with regular board meetings and an annual strategic planning session that guides our operations, assists with responsible decision making and most of all, ensures that we live up to our overarching vision to connect our communities. This is our mantra,” says Deb.
What an INcredible 10 years it’s been!
