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Rye News was ahead of the curve by being an online only publication. Some people still love the feel of a newspaper, but most prefer the easy access and convenience of having Rye News on your phones or tablets, whenever or wherever it suits you.

A growing part of our online profile is our social media presence. The Instagram page @newsrye was started by former editor Nick Forman. I took it over a couple of years ago, followed by Facebook and Threads. Our current editor James Stewart deals with X. While Facebook is mainly curated by Kt Bruce and Carolyn Gould, my favourite medium for expression and our most up to date information is on Instagram.

The page is designed to highlight the paper, be the vehicle for breaking news, showcase the beauty of our town, support its people and businesses and advertise the many events that make Rye unique.

The sheer number and diversity of stories we cover in any year, is a content creator’s dream. From landslips around town (February 23) to landslides across the country (July 5 and ‘Election 2024’ breaking the election result for Hastings and Rye at 5.00 am) from Andi (March 29) to Andy (May 10) and Diana (October 18) to Camilla (May 17), Jazz (July 19 and Rye Jazz 2024) to carols (December 13) and history (November 15) to future plans(March 15).

Instagram is primarily a visual format, but also an excuse for a great tune. A strong picture, minimal words and a relevant clip of music; 15 seconds of joy. As we all bank another year into the vault of our memories, where better to find handy reminders of 2024.

The main grid is a patchwork of the year, but the Stories, tell the detail. To remember 2024, look no further than the highlight icons, where the Stories are collected every week. In glorious technicolour, you are able to scroll through some of the year’s news, events and articles. Every Sunday, we put up a playlist of the tunes that we’ve used.

This year there are over 60 highlights. Some are a collection of specific events; Scallop Week, Rye Arts Festival, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Sunday, our playlists etc. Some are more personal; scroll through to January 2024 and tap on the 11.01.24 icon, ‘Why I love Rye?’, to remind yourself how lucky we are to call Rye home. The others are all dated and will take you back to that specific week.

Humour is an entirely subjective thing. The news cycle can be unremittingly gloomy and I make no apologies for being a little irreverent and trying to put a smile on your face while we deliver it. For this, the music is crucial. Jennifer Lopez getting down On the Floor in an piece about St Mary’s, or the Rolling Stones Angry for a particularly fractious Monday night town council meeting.

Trying to find music to match our articles is fun. Some are easy, Rescue Me for RNLI stories and some more challenging; Hold On, I Can’t Wait Anymore, I Can’t Wait Any Longer and Oui, Oui, Oui, Oui, for the many toilet stories covered by Col Everett, James, Peter Connock and Sarah Broadbent this year.

Because of your continued support, we are bucking the national trend among local newspapers and thriving. Our merry band of contributors is slowly increasing, our importance to the community is growing and our ambition for the paper is at an all time high. Thank you to the team, the town and Stuart Cooper from Clear Air Flying, who send me photos to keep our social media current and relevant.

Merry Christmas Rye and a healthy, happy and prosperous new year. The Rye News Instagram account will try to keep that smile on your face for as much of 2025 as possible.

All the photos in this article come from a variety of Rye News contributors and have been Instagramed by Natasha Robinson.