Why we launched our third community newspaper
In October 2018 Social Spider launched it’s third newspaper in less than five years. Here James Cracknell, Social Spider Editor in Chief, reflects on the launch of Enfield Dispatch.
Launching a print newspaper in this time of severe decline in print is a brave — some would say foolhardy — move. But at Social Spider we have now launched not one, not two, but three community newspapers in under five years. We don’t pretend to have found a magical formula that will save the local media industry, but we do have an unwavering belief in the value of print at the local level, and in people’s desire to still have a trusted and reliable print newspaper representing their community.
What is needed is a new approach that enables local newspapers to be sustainable in the long-term — and it is our goal to show that this is possible.
I have been editing Social Spider’s first community newspaper, Waltham Forest Echo, since 2015. I have also worked as a freelance reporter, and one of the papers for which I wrote a few years ago was the Enfield Advertiser. Like all local papers it had suffered severe financial difficulties, but it was still a well-valued publication and played a crucial role in holding local authority to account — until it was closed suddenly in August 2017. Even though I had become used to hearing about newspaper closures, I was shocked by this one. People I had worked with were made redundant, and a London borough home to 330,000 people was left without its chief source of news and information.
Social Spider was already considering its next expansion, so I suggested to director David Floyd that Enfield should be the place where we open a third newspaper. It was not somewhere we had any prior involvement, but gradually I began to make some local connections, and discovered that Enfield had a series of thriving online communities and networks. I got in touch with people from Love Your Doorstep and Enfield Voices, and it soon became clear that a new print newspaper was something people were yearning for. We decided to make it happen. In August 2018 I began a new full-time role as Editor in Chief at Social Spider, encompassing my existing role with the Echo while taking on the challenge of launching and editing the as-yet-unnamed paper in Enfield.
For me this was a new experience, but I was able to draw on the expertise we already had within the organisation and take advantage of our existing arrangements for printing, designing and distributing Social Spider’s two existing newspapers. It wasn’t difficult to find contributors, either, as I had already built up connections with several local people and organisations that were incredibly enthusiastic about the idea of a new publication in Enfield.
Being able to shape the look and feel of a newspaper from the very beginning was exciting. From editing the Echo I had developed a keen idea of the elements that worked well and those that didn’t, while I also sought feedback from local people in Enfield to find out what they wanted to see included.
The result was Enfield Dispatch, a bright and fresh-looking 16-page community newspaper containing original news reporting, comment and opinion, features, interviews, sport, a health column, a business page, an arts and culture section — the majority of it written by volunteer contributors.
Following the launch of the Dispatch in October 2018 we received some very positive feedback and we are all delighted with what we have achieved so far. There is always room for improvement, of course, and it is my job as editor to ensure that this new publication plays a central role in the Enfield community.
If you would like to support Enfield Dispatch, you can become a member of the paper here: enfielddispatch.co.uk/join/
