“What’s with the ads, Jacko?” An emailed interrogation delivered with Territorian-style bluntness. A fair question, though – and one I need to address. Regular readers of these Notes will have observed the appearance of promotional pointers for Sun Lagoon Resort and Aurora Cruises under the ASOPA People Extra banner.

I’ve provided details of the Sun Lagoon connection in an earlier post [‘Noosa deal for ASOPA PEOPLE readers’] but the cruise line's ad (and I hope others to come) deserve explanation. It all began with my election as President of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia and my desire to see the Association move to a position where it could do more for the people of PNG. In the same context, I also observed the commitment and unstinting effort of a number of volunteers, especially but not limited to Andrea Williams, to produce and distribute the PNGAA’s quarterly journal, Una Voce.

My thinking ran along these lines: if we could use Una Voce and associated communication channels to generate revenue through advertising and sponsorship, we could use the proceeds both to improve the journal and to establish a philanthropic fund for projects in PNG. This would give the Association another string to its bow – and make its operations more meaningful in the context of Australia-PNG relations.

And what are these ‘associated communication channels’. Well, clearly one is the PNGAA website. But I also decided that ASOPA PEOPLE and its affiliated monthly e-newsletter The Mail should be included in the package. The latter two outlets are owned and managed by me but have never been used – and will not be used – to generate revenue for me or my company, the public relations gurus Jackson Wells Pty Ltd. The sites are privately funded by me, and there is no cost recovery.

ASOPA PEOPLE and The Mail were originally established to provide networking opportunities for people associated with ASOPA and have broadened their brief in more recent times to welcome readers who are more generally interested in Australia's relationships with PNG.

However, to use these channels to assist raise funds for worthy PNG projects was another matter. So I decided to bundle them into a PNGAA package to offer potential advertisers a unique means of providing information to people who have a strong association with PNG. For $5,000 a year (plus GST) advertisers can secure:

A full-page ad in each quarterly issue of Una Voce. The journal has a circulation of about 1,700 and a readership estimated at 5,000.

Information on and a link to the advertiser’s website from the PNGAA website. Readership unknown.

Information in and a link to the advertiser’s website from ASOPA PEOPLE. One hundred hits a day from an estimated 200-300 regular readers.

Information in each issue of The Mail , the monthly e-newsletter distributed free of charge to nearly 400 subscribers.

So that’s what’s with the ads … a developing platform to provide people-to-people assistance for selected PNG projects under the auspices of the PNGAA. Only one more thing remains to be said – if you’re aware of a potential company or organisation that might be interested in this package, I’d appreciate you pointing them in my direction.