Last week The Newsport reached new heights.

Don't take that the wrong way, this article isn't intended to be an exercise in self-adulation. In fact, if I'm being honest we didn't really have too much to do with it.

The burning of the Royal Hotel in Mossman last Thursday was a big story. In fact, it was it was so big that when our regular email update 'The Newsport Lite' was sent to the almost 7,000 strong subscriber list on Friday morning, within the first 24 hours 3,700 people had read it. This number has continued to grow since.

But I'm sure you'll agree that the words to the article 'Royal destroyed in blaze' came a distant second in getting the message across to the dramatic photos sent in by Sonia Lukin, and the video supplied to us by John White via our Facebook page.

The reason I'm so happy is that within 12 hours of the event, our readers (Sonia is also a regular contributor to our Best Photo Competition) had taken it upon themselves to share their experience with others, using The Newsport network to do it.

The Newsport itself is an independent operation owned by people who live in Port Douglas. And I'm the first to admit that, as a first-year editor, the learning curve is steep.

But despite this, I'm confident that if our readers continue to use us to share information and their opinions, we continue to serve our primary purpose - to reflect what's important to our community.

In the case of The Newsport, the community constitutes people from all over the world who, for one reason or another, care about this region. 

So keep your ear to the ground, your iPhone at the ready, and your articles, comments, opinions, and incredible photos coming so we can continue to deliver the most up to date news service possible.  

Read more of today's news. Check out The Newsport home page.