Newsletter Coordinator's report for 2008/9

Jackie Fuller

Widely read in the area

By Jackie Fuller, NLCA Newsletter Coordinator

Unfortunately, the North Laine Runner (NLCA newsletter) didn't cover its outgoings during 2008. It cost us just over £500 more to print than we raised in advertising revenue. This is the first time for several years that this has happened.

Advertising and Advertising Coordinator

At the last AGM Paley O'Connor, who had been the Advertising Coordinator for more than four years, announced her need to step down because of her other commitments. We appealed for a new volunteer to come forward several times during the year but did not hear from anyone. This meant that we have had no-one for a whole year who has been paying any attention to arranging new advertising when some businesses moved away or no longer wished to advertise and inevitably this has been reflected in our overall income. However, we are very grateful to Paley for continuing to collect some of the money from our existing advertisers even after she had officially resigned!

Now at last Gay Phillips, one of our joint secretaries, is taking over from Paley, so we hope to be in a more healthy financial position this time next year. If any trader reading this might be interested in supporting the community by helping to keep the North Laine Runner going and at the same time advertising your business, please contact us for details of our advertising rates at northlainerunner@nlcaonline.org.uk

Very many thanks to all our existing advertisers and especially to those who have been loyal to us over a number of years.  Please show your appreciation of them by using their services whenever possible (and don't forget to say that you saw their advert in the Runner!).

Distribution

The Runner is distributed to all residents and traders via our system of Street Representatives. This is really the main job of the Street Reps - anything over and above that is optional! So very many thanks to all the Street Reps for doing this vital work during the past year.

Recently two of our Street Reps have had to stand down and so we are now looking for replacement deliverers for Robert Street and for the flats in Blenheim Place. If you think you might be able to help with either of these (you don't necessarily have to live in those places), please could you contact us via the above email address as below as soon as possible.

We also have a mailing list of people outside North Laine: councillors, council officers, other community newsletters with whom we have exchange arrangements, as well as some former residents etc. In the case of the last of these and being mindful of the fact that it actually costs us about £7 a year to send you the Runner (printing + envelopes and stamps) we do appreciate it if you can send us a regular contribution towards these costs. Our thanks to those who have done this quite recently.

Distribution of the Runner to the Street Reps and by mail is coordinated by Ruth Goodall. She does this job in her usual super efficient way, so very many thanks to her. Also thanks to Sandy Crowhurst, who casts an eye over the final draft before we go to press in case any howlers have crept in. Sandy also helps with some of the headlines when I've run out of ideas.

Content

During the past year the content of the Runner has covered a wide range of topics. These have included:

• Information about/reports on local events (street parties, events in Pelham Square and in Pavilion Gardens, NLCA Seasonal Social, Heritage Weekend in North Laine with its associated tours and follow-up walks around our industrial heritage etc)
• Planning (and especially the proposals relating to City College and to London Road)
• Environmental issues and pedestrian safety
• Local history (a wide variety of different topics covered here - too numerous to summarise)
• Present day people (especially those shutting up shop or moving away such as Gabrielle Villermet, Spud & Angela Murphy, Peter Stocker, Roy Moffatt)
• Memories of and by people who once lived here (eg Jack Tinker, Robert Shelton, Alice Reynolds)
• Commemorative plaques (Anita Roddick and others)
• Obituaries (eg Ken Fines, Michael Gill)
• Launch of the new NLCA website
• Art (eg Festival Open Houses, art on the Astoria, free exhibitions in the Museum & Art Gallery)
• New books with a local connection
• Information about other voluntary groups and charities
• Student essays about the North Laine
• Traders Association news

Articles on the website

Where we think that some Runner articles relevant to North Laine should have a longer life, we now put them onto this website after publication in the newsletter. Anyone submitting a piece for the Runner who does not want it to go onto the website subsesquently is asked to make this clear at the time of submission. Of course on the website we don't post any information about people's street addresses or contact details.

Widely read

It's always pleasing to learn how widely read the Runner is in our area, even by people who have never attended an NLCA meeting or event! Some people tell me that they really look forward to receiving each issue. I also often get emails from people outside the area who have seen and enjoyed reading the Runner. Here are a couple of recent ones:

"I was fascinated by the potted history feature about the Upper Gardner Street Market in the last Runner. It was a place we liked to visit when we first came to live in Brighton 25 years ago. Could we have more please? Congratulations on an outstanding publication, a credit to all who contribute. I always enjoy reading it when I manage to get a copy."

John Shepherd
Ovingdean Residents & Preservation Society

"I think community newspapers play a significant role in current times and will do so even more in the future, particularly as local newspapers have reduced the level of investment in grass roots reporting and have replaced it with celebrity and feature type news items, which require less resources. Community newspapers play a vital role in informing residents about issues which may have a substantial impact on them and which they may not hear about without going out and seeking that information themselves.

The North Laine Runner is one of the best community newspapers I have seen during my career. I think it looks great - a nice little community production. I was a journalist for 22 years and it's as good as some weekly papers I have worked for. Well done and keep up the good work!"

Karen Hoy
Press & PR Manager for Southern Water
(former journalist on The Argus, as well as radio news journalist etc)

With your help, whether as contributors or advertisers (or both), we hope to have a successful year for the North Laine Runner in 2009/10.

[Previously published in the North Laine Runner, No 197, March/April 2009]