Welcome back … it’s been a while, but we've been working hard to transform Rye News into a format that we believe will keep the paper fresh, interesting and relevant to our readers, while making it manageable and enjoyable for the people who produce it.
Let's remember, local newspapers are a dying breed in the UK, but with over 5,000 readers per week and 1m page views per year, Rye News has been an exception to that trend. That's something we couldn’t afford to lose.
Our intent remains the same: to report local news, provide residents and visitors with local information and campaign to make Rye a premier location to live, work and visit. Our aim is simple: to keep our community informed, celebrate the character of Rye and its surrounding villages and create a publication that reflects the interests, ideas and voices of all of us in Rye and the surrounding villages.
But to do this in a way that is sustainable in the long term we also need to change. We need to engage more of you, our readers, to become part of the writing and publishing team and we have had a fantastic response with many new volunteers now part of Rye News. But more are always welcome!
At the same time, investment in our publishing system is also underway, and you will notice a fresh new format that we will adapt over time to meet the needs of our readership.
You will see that we are now concentrating our efforts in four main areas: News, Features, Opinions and What’s On. An expanded News in Brief will keep you updated on current issues and what’s happening in our area. A smaller number of features will look a bit more closely at important, or interesting, topics affecting our community. Finally, opinions, the opportunity for you to express your views on a wide range of issues, will continue to be strongly encouraged.
Your engagement with the paper, and what we publish, remains a central component of what we do… and we welcome comments on everything that we publish!
It goes without saying that all this has involved quite some investment, both in time and money. We rely totally on our developing team of volunteers and simply would not exist without the generous financial support from our donors and subscribers. In particular we must mention the Rye Chamber of Commerce, without whose substantial donation we would not have been able to restart the paper.
We are excited, and we hope you are excited, as we launch our first edition. Look out for (or sign up to) our email alerts, but also expect them to be a bit different in format and frequency.
Finally, please bear with us in the early stages as we encounter the inevitable glitches, but we hope that the end result will be worth it!
The Rye News Team
