Australia’s only national newspaper for children, Crinkling News, has been saved from the brink of extinction by an online crowdfunding campaign.

The paper, aimed at children aged seven to 14, has managed to raise more than $205,000 in two weeks on crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

The editorial team appealed to the public for help, saying without financial assistance the paper would print its last issue this week.

More than 1700 backers pitched in to contribute to the publication, with the money raised going towards “jumping the final hurdle to sustainability”.

WE DID IT!!!! Thank you, Australia. Crinkling News is saved.

— Crinkling News (@crinklingnewsau) May 17, 2017

Started one year ago by two former Fairfax journalists using their redundancy payments, Crinkling News is posted weekly to 800 schools across the country.

Employing a number of young reporters, Crinkling aims to explain complex news events and issues, “but not in a boring or scary adult way”.

Editor Saffron Howden expressed her gratitude after the $200,000 goal was reached, tweeting: “I have all the tears of joy right now. Thank you.”

Speaking to the ABC earlier this week, Ms Howden said while the media industry in Australia was struggling, Crinkling‘s readership was actually growing.

“While it’s coming in the context of a whole lot of tragic job losses in the industry, it is really a bit of a different story because our readership is growing, our print readership is growing but we’ve simply run out of seed funding,” Ms Howden said.

News of the paper’s survival prompted widespread celebration, with parents of loyal Crinkling readers taking to social media to rejoice.

“Yes! Our 12 year old will be happy to hear this after school!” Twitter user Julie Rayner said.

So happy to hear that @crinklingnewsau is saved! well done, and can't wait for the next issue! 👏

— Nicola O'Brien (@NicolaO_B) May 18, 2017