There are many people in party HQ who have to try to work miracles with sparse resources, especially the party’s newspaper team, producing Liberal Democrat News and its predecessors on a shoestring for decades.
All the more impressive if you have ever looked at the range of raw materials sent them; the press releases and photos available to choose from have not always been of the best quality, shall we say.
Picking through the party’s financial accounts each year, it’s no secret that the various incarnations of the Lib Dem News team have also struggled to make the books balance on its activities, especially as the postage costs for a weekly publication sent out first class have gone up.
Hence the decision to switch to a magazine format, and the new job advertised yesterday whose responsibilities include:
An ability to develop and edit a new magazine for members of the Liberal Democrats.
With the online world increasingly covering quickly-moving news and postage costs making weekly a tough frequency to cover, a less frequently, more reflective and analytical magazine seems a good move to me.
In the meantime, many thanks to everyone who has produced the years of newspapers I’ve read. It’s been appreciated.
* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.
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11 Comments
I wonder if there’s a need for this organ at all, given the increasing numbers of daily briefings etc. coming out of LDHQ.
I subscribed for a couple of years to Liberal Democrat News, but found that mostly it was full of stuff I’d read online a few days ago. Unfortunately though if you want to get anywhere in the party, you rather need to subscribe to get the job adverts, selection meetings etc. advertised in the back pages.
Perhaps one option would be a purely digital publication? No postage or printing costs…
I agree with Dave about purely digital. If you are not actively online, you’ll miss out on the job adverts and selection meetings, but that wouldn’t matter because if that were the case, you’d never be chosen anyway . . . .
Agreed – at least there should be an online version of the new publication. I for one refuse to subscribe to any paper publications, and I think in this day and age it shouldn’t be necessary. I never understood why LDN never managed to use the already existing log-in system on the website to offer online subscriptions which could have subsidised the paper version for those who need or prefer to receive it in hardcopy. Will somebody consider this now?
How about publishing it as an app?
Good morning all,
You might be interested in seeing the monthly Ezine, Newsline WM, published by the West Midlands region under the direction of editor Jock Gallagher and our Communication Team. The content is, naturally, mainly West Midlands-centric but the concept is sound and the feedback consistently positive.
All backissues are available on the regional website – http://www.wmlibdems.org
Actually I have subscribed to LDN by post for many years. The increase in postal charges is a bit of a red herring, as the annual sub cost has already gone up. I read nearly all editions and it provides a welcome antidote to the anti-LD spin in most of the media. I would read it in on Android app, but it wouldn’t be the same experience. Electronic media for a newspaper are rather more directed – the links are more proscribed than a paper reader whose eye is caught by headlines and picture across different topics. I do read LDN more thoroughly than most things on the web, and often in places without internet connection.
I worked for the Beeb for decades. Their house journal Ariel, went from magazine to fortnightly tabloid to magazine in that period. I definitely read it more as a fortnightly tabloid that in either its previous or later versions.
As a recycling issue, LDN is paltry compared the freeby weekly paper, let alone the two paid for local weeklys I get, or any edition of dailies.
Remember the many members, a lot elderly, who are not as ‘wired’ as contributors to this site.
Please keep the weekly tabloid format.
I too have little interest in paper versions, an app that enabled me to read it anywhere in the world via newstand on Ipad would be most welcome
– the point that is missed by all contributors here is that this is not about US and ourneeds.. it is about communicating with our members, most of whom do need ‘telling’ stuff, most of whom just won’t go for an online update in any format, but WILL get the Daily Rag from the cornershop. ! I.S. is right, we need to maintain a printed version to counteract the damage of the print media, we need to feed our membership with the facts so that they are able to act as ambassadors for the party, and not just reacting as apologists. Just look at the sheer numbers of members we have lost, who when asked why give some explanation based on a Wapping generated storyline.
Going for a magazine format is just so predictable of the armchair types at HQ.. and who has made this daft ‘decision’, (or is this still a proposal? ) They will turn it into a ‘lifestyle’ magazine next, as they certainly won’t want it looking like the cheap Council magazines. If its less frequent than weekly then it will be full of articles rather than news.
No, it’s a grave mistake, LDN is a brilliant format, it just needs to go to every member, it needs to have additional space to accommodate the adverts that could pay for it.. and those who dismiss such a suggestion should go and try it first before ditching the best political weekly newspaperin the UK.
I was sort of joking when I wrote ‘lifestyle’ in my piece above, but it’s there in the advert! Laugh? I could cry!
The job spec is so bitty, it includes sending PRs to other publications and ‘assisting around the office’, so implies that the job of knocking this mag together won’t take long, and the rest is to fill in the time.. it seems hardly written to attract the right person to make the magazine work and be successful. – and the salary isn’t enough to attract the person needed either, unless they have someone in mind?
A Kindle version would be great as well. It can be delivered by email and read offline.
It’s rather disappointing. The news always put in an occasional “What is going wrong here” type of letter.. I can’t see that coming out in the new centrally controlled briefings. Even worse is when some say online is the only way. Whatever happened to “None shall be enslaved by ignorance?”