The Daily Maverick: local news, returned to the locals
Big tech took regional news and scattered it across a dozen apps. The Daily Maverick puts it back in one place, every morning, for free.
A gift from Maverick Digital to regional Australia. It sources information and says where it came from. No opinions, no spin.
At a glance
- Launched
- 16 Oct 2026
- Towns live
- 7
- Towns built on day one
- 3
- Government data services
- 19
- Cost to readers
- Free
- Team
- One person, plus AI
It's not just AI. It's the 10/80/10 rule in action.
Call it 80/20: AI does 80% of the work, Brad does the 20% that matters.
- 10%: Brad asks. A clear problem and the right context. Rubbish in, rubbish out.
- 80%: AI does the grunt work. Drafts, code, research, video, the first pass at everything.
- 10%: Brad checks. He reads it, tweaks it, and nothing goes live until it's right. Then repeat.
The speed comes from the loop, not the tool.
Noise-cancelling headphones for your news
Most news today is opinion. The Daily Maverick does the opposite: it gathers what local outlets, councils and services publish, labels every item with its source and how fresh it is, and lets readers make up their own minds.
One app replaces the 10 or more that locals used to check each morning. Readers rearrange it, switch off what they don't want, and Mav, their personal assistant, sets it up when they ask.
We don't report. We source.
The community decides
Brad doesn't pick the features. Locals suggest ideas and vote, and once an idea passes the line, it gets built. The results of every poll are shown publicly, including a monthly community report card for council.
Community services, like Scam watch and the Kid Zone, stay free forever, whoever pays.
Timeline
What got done, day by day, newest first. Not a how-to: the level of detail is the point.
Day 3 18 Oct
- Secured access to 19 NSW Government data services, held in one shared place every town can draw on.
- Added Council watch, with a monthly unofficial poll that becomes council's community report card.
- Added Scam watch, hard-to-find customer phone numbers, renting and jobs, each one sourced.
- Restructured the site like a newspaper, with sections people can find, and cut the emojis back so it reads as serious news.
Day 2 17 Oct
- Renamed every town to The Daily Maverick, tying the brand back to Maverick Digital.
- Rolled out four more towns: Tweed Heads (2485), Taree (2430), Armidale (2350) and Port Macquarie (2444). Seven towns live.
- Launched "Who represents you?" for regional Australia: pick your postcode, see your council, MPs and senators, fact-checked and sourced.
- Made it personal: signed-in readers get their own named daily news, and an app on their home screen.
- Opened the Kid Zone for under-12s, with parental consent and games that teach online safety.
Day 1 16 Oct
- Launched a free daily community paper for Coffs Harbour (2450): local news, what's on, alerts, tides, fuel and a gentle In memory section. Every item names its source and how fresh it is.
- Built one engine that serves many towns. The Byron Shire (2481) and Bellingen Shire (2454) versions went live the same day.
- Added a thumbs up or down and a "Did we mess up?" box on every page, so mistakes get reported and fixed.
- The site went down in the afternoon when three towns shared one free hosting account. Back up within the hour, then rebuilt to stay inside the limits.
Noticed along the way
Habits worth stealing, logged as they happen. Newest first.
- 18 Oct Automate the risky jobs. Anything that could go wrong if a human forgot it, like marking information as out of date, runs on its own.
- 17 Oct Give first. Nobody pays to be listed, and information sourced for free stays free. Supporting local is how a small business earns the right to go big.
- 17 Oct Let the community steer. Features are voted in, not guessed. People back what they chose.
- 16 Oct Transparency is the product. Showing when each source last updated tells people more about how their town works than any opinion could.
- 16 Oct AI needs to be a little bit human. An early version of the funeral notices read like a sales pitch. It was rewritten with care the same hour.
Could your business run like this?
One person, seven towns, every morning. Imagine what the same approach could do for your business.
Last updated 18 October 2026.