The fight to save North Edinburgh’s community newspaper has been stepped up following a constructive public meeting held in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on Thursday evening. The meeting was organised by grassroots community campaigners and resulted in five new volunteers coming forward to offer help to the NEN’s management board to keep the newspaper alive.
Thirty-five people packed into Royston Wardieburn Community Centre’s GP4 room for the meeting which was chaired by community education lecturer Mae Shaw – herself an active participant in the formation of NEN’s predecessor, The Commune. Those present represented a broad cross-section of the North Edinburgh community – from politicians and community councillors from both Forth and Inverleith to church representatives, local project workers, community activists and concerned local residents alongside NEN board and staff members.
NEN chairman Martin Hinds outlined the background to the NEN’s current situation. He explained: “For the past two years I’ve been on the board we have been trying to deal with a tough financial situation. In 2007 the new council administration cut funding to the Edinburgh Community Newspaper Trust, which presented us with a real problem. Since then, we’ve managed to keep going through funding from the Fairer Scotland Fund, which was administered by local Neighbourhood Partnerships with local people involved in deciding where these funds were allocated. This funding was cut last year and we had to make some very dramatic decisions – fortunately for the paper, staff agreed to take a cut in pay and hours, which enabled us to continue to keep the paper going to the end of this financial year. However this year the process was changed and the council decided to ‘disinvest’ in community newspapers – and we now have no council income.”
He went on: “We do have income from advertising, but this is not enough to keep going in the way we do at present – it will not cover printing and distribution costs. We have an obligation to make redundancy payments to staff and the only way we are able to do this is by closing down and selling our office. The sale is now being agreed but although this will enable us to pay redundancies it will not be enough to keep the newspaper going in its current format. We are looking at alternative ways of producing some form of newspaper but not on the scale we are now used to – it will not be the full colour tabloid we have today unless funding is found from somewhere else. However we are in talks with various agencies and we hope to resurrect it at some point – but in all probability not in the way it is at the moment”.
NEN board member Eddie Thorn added: “As a board we recognised that we had to make changes to the way we operate and we have been making those changes to allow us to meet our financial situation. However we have not been given sufficient time to see these changes through and I think that’s really unfortunate”.
The meeting was then opened for general discussion, giving participants the opportunity not only to explain what the NEN means to them but also to offer ideas and practical suggestions on how the newspaper can continue in some form.
The spirited discussion was punctuated by some emotional contributions and also generated a number of potential ideas for development. There was a call for NEN to get back to its campaigning roots and a suggestion that the new Royston Wardieburn Community Centre would be an ideal location for a scaled-down ‘back to basics’ NEN operation. One speaker suggested that community councils should be encouraged to contribute financially to support the NEN, while another said a commitment should be sought from local groups and projects. It was agreed that local businesses should be approached again for their support and that community grants may be available to develop the project.
There was also scathing criticism of the council’s own ‘Outlook’ newspaper – it was revealed at the meeting that the annual cost of this publication is in excess of £400,000.
What was clear at the end of the discussion is that there is a genuine commitment across the area to see the community newspaper continue. However the challenge remains: how do you harness that public goodwill and affection and turn it into tangible financial support that can sustain an independent community newspaper?
Five people offered to work with the NEN board to take forward some of the ideas raised at the meeting in the hope that, while things currently look fairly bleak, there is still a future for North Edinburgh News. The group plans to meet with the NEN board before the organisation’s AGM on 30 March.
Anna Hutchison organised the Royston Wardieburn meeting and is one of the five people who subsequently volunteered to work with the NEN board. Speaking after the meeting she said: “I think the meeting went well and thanks to everyone who attended – a big thanks to Dionne, the only young person there – she did well in introducing herself. The outcome is that five people volunteered to meet with the NEN Board to think of ways to get funding and we also intend to bombard councilors from the Forth Ward to demand that we receive support for the NEN. Although the last edition has been printed and the staff have received their redundancy notices we will still fight – we may have lost the fight but not the war! I personally will be badgering Forth Councilors through constant emails and visiting their surgeries to demand this. Once again thanks to all who attended – we had people from Granton, Royston, Pilton, Drylaw and Muirhouse and Muirhouse, and I applaud you all. They say cutback – we say fight back!”
Ann Confrey was one of four NEN board members to attend and she also felt that it was a positive meeting. She said: “Lots of good ideas and potential opportunities were raised and the board members look forward to discussing some of these in more detail with those who volunteered to help us. Thanks to all who attended – as a relative newcomer to the area it was fascinating to learn more about the roots of NEN and to see the passionate debate that the removal of the people’s voice evoked.”
Dave Pickering
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