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Hello, this is notmaj4, the one-man team behind TBW News.

It's been months since I've touched this website and two years since a proper TBW News video bulletin has been made.

In those two years, many a story have flashed before these eyes. And many a change have come and gone.

And one that's come, gone and brushed as a novelty of the decade behind us is a peculiar phenomenon named Talking Tom. A simple app with a simple function: talk to Tom and he responds in a high-pitched voice reminiscent of feline sounds.

Talking Tom has since become an entire franchise aimed at children, with many off-shoots and more fur. One of those off-shoots was Talking Ben, a peevish chemistry whiz and a dog.

Both met their fighting grounds in the Talking Tom & Ben News app, where one can do talk-and-repeat to both characters and make them do tussle, in a child-friendly manner of course.

From there, some New Zealander saw the potential for this — a news bulletin, with real news, but hosted in a cartoon-style way, with two characters and a voice "actor" (though the app did much of the voice-changing work) — and started Tom and Ben News New Zealand in 2011.

Some more people joined the obscure yet outré "Tom & Ben News journalism" content, mainly through YouTube, and garnered a sizeable audience.

In 2016, I launched what was then plainly called "Tom and Ben News". With a passion for creating shared with one of my close friends, I pushed through 2016 and 2017 creating more bulletins, and some twists and turns along the way.

However, real life got the better of me, and by mid-2017 I, after numerous delays, wrapped up what was became my "last" Tom and Ben News video, originally scheduled around 10 April. I even made another video for the week after, but major technical issues (and a busted hard drive) meant that the final, edited bulletin was lost to time.

A year after, I decided to come back, hoping to rekindle a flame with a new bulletin and even a breaking news video, but by then I lost interest again as another year in school came.

Finally in 2019, while on a break, I decided to get back into the business for a third time. Hoping that my improved editing and a new computer would make things easier, I trudged on with a second video, eventually posting it on the last days of the year.

With school back and after some contemplation, I realised how bloated and complex the format was — 15 minutes for a typical bulletin, and more for special events — just as much as some broadcast news bulletins. This, along with the fact that I was essentially flogging a dead horse, with the only tangible audience being toddlers and very young children, led me to scale back what was now called Outfit7 News (not related to the company).

Two years have passed, and despite promises of revival, I no longer think this could go on. I've long outgrown Talking Tom, and now I'm in very different waters — waters that don't treat content like this very well any more. (And of course education and personal life has gotten more involved today.)

To the few faithful and everyone else, I hope you'll understand my predicament, if not now, then when you grow older. It's been a pleasure serving you brief world news, with a frivolous touch.

This website, and all TBW News bulletins, will remain in an archived state until I decide to do something with them.

Good-bye for now — this is TBW News.

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Following unpopular demand and the failure of memes to stop the Earth from rotating to the second day of April, we've decided to discontinue our subscription service and remove the paywall. It was a hard decision, but in the end, the people - and you - prevailed.

TBW News is once again completely free.

April Fool's and have a great day!

You can now subscribe to TBW News to get access to exclusive reports and analysis, and more of today's brief world news every day, all for USD$1 a month. Subscribe now.

(warning: pretty sus)