Following the example of our mayor, Andi Rivett I felt that as editor I should provide a monthly update about what’s happening at Rye News.
Now that I have found my feet, I’m able to report that various changes have been or will soon be implemented and, as a team, we are all continually striving to make Rye News even better.
After nearly eight years, former Rye News editor John Minter has now retired as a regular contributor and is spending his well-earned retirement finishing off his boat renovation. John has been a stalwart and a loyal member of the team, never afraid to pin his colours to the mast and we thank him for his service and wish him well as he takes to the waves (eventually!).
Michael Montagu has recently joined us and now writes regularly for us on a variety of interesting subjects and we would also like to welcome on board two new contributors namely Susan Desrosiers and Kim Zanes, who will add another dimension – you will be hearing more from them shortly.
Peter Connock has been appointed company secretary and joins the board of directors who currently include Dennis Leeds-George, Christopher Strangeways, Chris Lawson, Natasha Robinson, Gill Roder, Susan Benn and myself. We now hold regular board meetings and are working towards finalising a business plan to ensure the future and sustainability of Rye News.
One of the recent initiatives was to update our comments policy which has had a positive effect on comments received and has made clear the revised boundaries which were beginning to be abused.
Increasing our profile has been another objective: it’s surprising how many people have never heard of Rye News! You will have noticed our distinctive window stickers in shops and businesses in town which include a QR code which links you to our website. We would appreciate further support in displaying these (where possible) so please let us know if we can give you a free self-adhesive window sticker. They are easily removed if you need to re-position them.
We have introduced a business section and, in addition, we have agreed that the heading Living will be replaced by Community which we feel encompasses a wider selection of articles and which will make navigating our website a little easier. It has also allowed us to keep the news section purely for actual news stories. For articles which fall somewhere between news, living and the arts, they will now feature under the community heading.
Our editorial team meet on a bi-weekly basis, courtesy of the Mermaid Inn and we are very grateful to Judith and Martin Blincow for hosting us there. In addition, Rye News has also been looking for an office in town where our readers can ‘pop in’ and see us but as you know, rents are high in Rye and suitable premises are in extremely short supply but we are in the process of negotiating a solution and I hope to be able to make an announcement in the next editor’s update.
Writing articles about anything sport-related has always been a challenge. Had it not been for the cricket articles submitted by Martin Blincow on a regular basis we would have had very little to write about. But, after a ‘bit of a push’, we have had two or three sport stories each week for the past few weeks so we are winning the battle. We need sports clubs and societies to tell us what they are doing, send us match reports and landscape-shaped photographs. We will do something about it but we haven’t got the resources (yet) to send a reporter to cover the game so until then I’m afraid it’s down to you to do the leg work.
We are now members of, and working more closely with, the Rye Chamber of Commerce who promote businesses and events and publicise campaigns and initiatives. Our function, and strength, is communication. In bringing businesses together by consolidating and sharing resources, we hope to be more effective, help make a difference and promote positive change.
We are always looking for ways to improve Rye News but we still have gaps in the system. We need a regular sports writer, we also need someone to take over managing advertising space at Rye News as we need income to survive. Do you fancy writing a regular baking / cookery column for us?
If you have something to offer please email me on editor@ryenews.org.uk and if you have any thoughts or suggestions on how we can continue to improve then please let me know, we do listen and your views are important.
Finally, on behalf of all the team here I would like to thank you, our readers and all those who subscribe or donate to Rye News. Your generosity is very much appreciated and vital to ensuring our existence. It’s your community newspaper, thank you everyone for your continued support.
Nick Forman, editor, Rye News
Image Credits: Kt bruce .
With the excellent Rye News team looking for an office, where better to look at our under used police station, with all its empty offices, and the Inspector who has recently said he would like to utilise these redundant offices,for the good of the community.
Excellent idea John. Would help to liaise with the local police and have a regular ‘Dixon of the Salts’ column …
Phil, even Dixon of Dock Green would have problems trying to find a needle in a Haystack,on the old town Salts.
With a new Editor in place will we see a more balanced view of comments posted? It would seem asking around, that comments that do not fit the ‘moderators’ agenda are routinely taken down. I hear the cry ‘we need to expand our readership’ but note the same names posting comments with rarely a new contributor. Why would others bother if their comments are ‘moderated’ then taken down. I also recall a couple years back that there was a proposal to work on encouraging younger readers to engage with the publication. I have yet to see anything that remotely resembles any of this encouragement.
Cliff, comments will be posted if they meet the criteria of the Rye News comments policy, they wont if they dont. Comments received are not amended by the moderator but either published or not. Anyone can comment but a small number of readers comment regularly, that’s their choice and we welcome comments. At least we have now put a stop to the back biting and pointed comments which were largely unnecessary but if they come back you wont see them published. Regarding our younger readers, you have obviously missed lots of articles published which include refernce to the youth or children locally, they are there if you look for them. Type in the word children using the magifying glass shaped icon on the top right of the front page of Rye News, the articles are there for you to read and enjoy. Nick Forman, ‘new’ editor
Hi Nick, yes there are lots of articles about children but I think Cliff is referring to the aspiration to engage with children and young people rather than just write about them. It’s a difficult challenge but one worth pursuing
Great to hear what’s going on, Nick. All sounds very positive. Thanks to you and the team for continuing to collate and promote Rye’s conversation. Thanks also, to John Minter for his service and for his forthright perspectives, which always invigorated the conversation. Good luck with the boat, John!