CONTENT FOR A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE

IS THERE SUFFICIENT MATERIAL TO PUBLISH?

Whatever type of magazine you choose to publish requires a great deal of content and it is easy to see why some people have concerns about obtaining sufficient quantities of material to publish in a community magazine.

In September 2003 when I first decided to commence publishing, what at the time was intended to be a small newsletter, I too had concerns about how long I would be able to sustain publication. A glance at my websites for Pontefract and Knottingley, will show you the wealth of information that has since been submitted voluntarily for publication by my readers.  The websites contain only the information that has so far been published and do not account for material awaiting publication.

Almost every reader will have something of interest to you, whether it be an epic account of their life or just a short letter, perhaps in response to a story you have previously published.  Many readers will simply have photographs along with accompanying details or often without any details at all - either way they are suitable for publication in your magazine.

The response rate to a community magazine is phenomenal, perhaps better than with any other type of magazine currently available.  Your entire readership will be able to relate to the items you publish and it is your task to urge them to put their thoughts down on paper and send them in to you.

Over the past 41 months or so I have tried several different ways to urge my readers to contribute their memories and recollections for publication. I have offered prizes and monetary rewards, none of which have greatly increased the amount of material submitted.  Your readers will naturally submit articles for publication as they read those previously published and it seems allowing them to do so on their own accord is the best way of tackling it.

Your readers will take great interest in archive photographs, school and sports group photographs, and these should be an important consideration in the compilation of your final copy.  Published in A4 size, I reproduce photographs full-page whenever possible, depending on the quality of the submitted image.

If you are fortunate to receive epic accounts of people's lives, then these can be published in monthly instalments, enabling you to offer a large variety of material in each single issue.

Much of the work of obtaining information for publishing in your magazine will be down to the amount of effort you are prepared to put in.  Your local library will have a wealth of material available, potentially in the form of microfiche copies of old newspapers, which comprise a useful and very interesting section of my own publications.  Obtaining this information takes some time and effort and involves booking the microfiche readers and making notes of the most interesting reports from individual years from the past century or more.  Each month I concentrate on a single year, often publishing in instalments when there is an abundance of interest for any particular year.

The focus of a community magazine is on nostalgia, helping people recall past events from their lives. If you can do that then you have a good chance of enticing them to write in to you with additional information.

There is a wealth of information out there, more than with any other type of magazine, and it is down to you to obtain it.

Michael Norfolk

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