Like you lovely residents of Rye, the shops, services, businesses and hospitality venues of our town are all invested in this beautiful place; both literally and emotionally. We too at Rye News, share this pride and commitment.
As you know, we are an entirely volunteer-led endeavour. Our mission is simple: we want to encourage community. By sharing the news, events and stories that affect and surround us, we try to bind many different strands, to reflect the fabric of daily life across Rye, Rother and Romney Marsh.
Being everything to everyone isn’t easy, or frankly possible, but we believe we are stronger together, whichever tribe we are instinctively part of. Our motto is “Rye News My News”.
Our editor, Nick Forman, recently spoke of one of the biggest challenges here at the paper: “Making the public more aware of the existence of Rye News and to heighten our profile.”
If you are reading this, then you are already on board. Our job now, is to keep you with us. For the rest, our plans are just beginning. You may have noticed window stickers appearing around town. Shops and businesses are starting to share the Rye News message.
And that message is threefold. You are reminded to read your local paper #ryenewsfriday. You are encouraged to get in touch: write to us, or write for us, regularly or as a one off. And finally, follow us: on Facebook or Instagram primarily, for breaking news, daily events, extra content and pretty pictures. We do have a Twitter account, but no one to run it…fancy the job? That is just one of the positions we’d like to fill…anyone have experience handling advertising?
As you can see we have big ambitions; enter centre stage the QR code. Our stickers also feature the new Rye News ‘barcode’. QR stands for nothing more than ‘quick response’. It’s been around for about 30 years, but has now, since the increase in ownership of smartphones, become a standard part of information sharing. When you’re out and about, simply hold your phone up to the code and Rye News automatically appears.
As a publication, we are totally independent, politically neutral, with no other agenda than to share our love of Rye and help in its prosperity. We therefore sincerely thank everyone who has proudly displayed our stickers so far.
You may have noticed on our Instagram recently, the doorman of The Connaught in London, with one of our stickers. Rest assured, we have no immediate plans for world domination, just Rye. With your help, Rye News aims to become the anchor, the North Star and the beacon, of this community.
Image Credits: Natasha Robinson , Natasha Robinson , Nick Forman .