Six months ago Rye News was launched. Online. That’s where its future will always be. But today we’ve made an important move into print. We’re proud to be in that Rye institution Fixtures – to bring our online content to a wider local readership, to offer a flavour of our paper on the inked page.
For Fixtures this is also new territory. Ian Foster of Adams describes it as a milestone. This is the first time since it was founded in 1935 that the monthly publication has carried editorial. It will, too, from now on, offer full colour. Our pages have it. Advertisers can have the same.
We cannot fit all our content in Fixtures. What we are offering is a taste of the fine writing by our small core team: Charles Harkness, Richard Comotto, Tony McLaughlin, Seana Lanigan, Dan Lake, Britainy Rae, Tim Redfern, Jane Nunn, Ray Prewer, Neale East, John Izod, Dennis Leeds-George and Kenneth Bird.
That small band is joined by other fine writers: Nick Taylor, Simon Wright (farming), John Howlett, Mary Smith and Granville Bantick (politics), Gill Clamp (health), Derick Holman and Anthony Kimber. Sport is a great mix: Martin Blincow and Joe Lovell (cricket), Richard Hopper (sailing), Zoe Richmond-Watson (tennis), Darren Smith (golf), the entertaining duo Shane and Charmaine Ridgers, David Mayne and Ali MacDonald (all football). Plus more. The list of writers grows because they, like the rest of the team, believe in community. Part of the community wants to read local stories in print. This is for them.
Our ties with Fixtures go back to our origins. In one of those typical chats that most of us have in our daily lives, Kenneth Bird and Foster talk about the “appalling” lack of local news. Now, instead of talk there is action. Foster tells the genial Bird that he should do something about it. Bird did. Rye News.
Rye News is run by volunteers. It is done freely. For no profit. We’re here to publish the issues that concern us, whether or not that makes for comfortable reading for some. We’re here to promote our welfare and the 100-plus voluntary groups that make a massive contribution to the quality of our lives. Rye is alive and kicking, so is Rye News.
Our volunteers write about the things that interest them. We don’t write your story. If you have a story, write it yourself. We’ll publish. If you have an opinion on local issues, write it. We’ll publish. You want to take a photo for us, take it. We’ll publish. Join in. Help to expand our coverage. Because this is our and your community newspaper.
Remember: we – all of us who live here – make Rye News what it is.
