Have you ever wondered how your local newspaper is produced? Ever been disappointed at the quality of photos when you have a camera itching to take snaps? Ever wondered why this, that or the next story hasn’t been told? Ever thought you could tell a story better?
Ever fancied seeing that story told in the spoken rather than the written word? Or felt the story could make a great little film? Reckon you can do a job at layout? Are you retired as a journalist but wish you were still involved? Are you retired from your IT job but wouldn’t mind lending a hand on some of our digital projects?
Or ever just wanted to contribute in the office, keeping the paperwork ticking over while all those enthusiastic, creative volunteers wrote, filmed, recorded, asked questions, dug the depths of research and generally brought the community the local news that matters most to you? Do you have expertise in funding applications that can help us bring in more revenue?
Well, not only is that the basics of an endless list of possibilities, but if you’d like to have any part in any of it, however big or small, we would be delighted to hear from you. It may not be apparent to most, but your local paper and our other three local publications are produced, edited, digitised and marketed by one full time and two part-time staff. It’s a lot of work!
So why don’t we just employ more staff instead of twisting about it, I hear you ask? Well, firstly, we’re not twisting; we love what we do and we’re dedicated to it, but secondly, we simply do not have the revenue to employ more staff. Did we mention that we have an army of delivery boys and girls (and adults) who are also paid? In total we have over 140 deliverers across all our papers, all of whom are paid, meaning we spend over £800 per week paying deliverers alone. That’s over £3,200 per month before any bills are paid. Deliverers are our second largest cost.
And no, our own wages aren’t the largest – not by a long stretch (you have to love this job if you want to stick with it!) – our largest cost is printing. It costs us over £65,000 per year simply to print the papers. That’s £1,300 per week, or £5,200 per month. So that’s £8,500 per month to print and distribute the papers, and we haven’t even paid the staff yet!
As a small, not-for-profit community interest company, we are here for you. We do this for our communities and we work hard every week to bring you a local paper worthy of the name. We are incredibly thankful to our advertisers for their support – it simply wouldn’t be possible to do what we do without them.
We’re also thankful to our members, who have put their hands in their pockets and often invested more in us than the £2 per month we ask of them. We need more of you too! We’re equally grateful to those who have donated to us since we launched this fundraising campaign. Every single penny helps us to produce our papers every week, helps us put money into the pockets of our young deliverers, helps us tell the stories, promote the businesses and support our communities. But we want to do more, and that’s where your volunteering comes into it.
We want to bring you more stories and we want your help to find them. We want you to help us tell the stories in print, on film and in podcasts. We already have the equipment, now we just need the people. We could use some help in the office on the admin side, online with our website, whether helping to populate it with stories or in the more technical elements of its maintenance and development. We’re also keen to utilise the power of AI, if you’d like to help with that. And of course we would love to employ more people, and volunteers can help us bring in the resources that will mean we can do that too – it’s part of the plan.
But let’s not forget those who already volunteer for us either. Your paper would be empty of local stories were it not for those who take time to write to us to share their news. Not only do many of them already volunteer at the group they are writing about, but they take the extra time to get in touch with us so we can share their news and celebrate in their successes.
We’re certain that many of the opportunities described here will be of interest to many of you out there, older and younger. So don’t be shy, call us on 01388 775896 for a chat or visit us for a tour and a cuppa. We’d love to hear from you and you’d be made most welcome!
South West Durham News covering news across County Durham.
