We won newspaper of the year .. but not because we did anything special
All week, Behind Local News is celebrating the Regional Press Awards by asking winners to share the secrets of their success. Andy Murrill, editor of the Newbury Weekly News, on an unusual recipe for success…
“And the winner of best weekly newspaper with a circulation of more than 10,000 is… the Newbury Weekly News!”
What beautiful words for my team and I to hear at last Friday’s Society of Editors Regional Press Awards in London.
Our win came after a tough year for the company in which we made the difficult decision to close our press hall, resulting in half our friends and colleagues leaving the business.
Our win also came just a couple of weeks after passionate newspapermen Edward Iliffe and Peter Fowler bought the Newbury Weekly News from the family who had lovingly owned it for 152 years since launching it in 1867.
The timing of this award really could not have been better.
So why did we win? What is so special about the Newbury Weekly News?
I think part of the reason for our award was that we did nothing special this year, we just did what we always do. But I’ll come on to that later.
One special thing about the NWN is our people — our staff and our readers.
Every person working here loves the paper. Editorial, advertising, production, IT, accounts, circulation, drivers… we all share a passion for ‘The Newbury’ and we work as one team with a clear focus on our print and digital brands.
And The Newbury is genuinely loved by the readers in the community we serve. There is a huge interest in everything we do and the high expectations of the public drive us to produce the best papers that we can.
Yet nothing special happened newswise in 2018.
We didn’t break any earth-shattering exclusives, we didn’t run a campaign of national importance, we didn’t suffer any major disasters — natural or otherwise — and we didn’t expose any major wrongdoing.
We simply did what we always try to do — produce a great, engaged community newspaper that informs and entertains the people of West Berkshire. And we produce it with passion and enthusiasm.
Our submission made it clear that the three titles put forward for the awards represented our normal weekly output.
I highlighted our in-depth community news pages, vibrant entertainment section and at least three lively letters pages each week, helping to set the local political agenda.
I was proud that we increased our sports section to an average of 10 pages in 2018, focussing heavily on grass roots and women’s sport.
We continued to highlight the growing plight of homeless people on the streets of Newbury, supporting the establishment of a night shelter in the town centre and raising £4,468 for the local soup kitchen.
The paper has an annual Christmas appeal — the Over 80s Parcel Fund — amazingly, now in its 121th year. Nearly 2,000 elderly people received hampers over the 2018 festive period in a real community effort, with schools, Scouts and businesses all getting involved. We have to raise £20,000 each year to pay for the Parcel Fund — a major commitment.
And I highlighted our commercial successes that the editorial team do all we can to support.
Now more than ever, editorial and commercial departments need to work closely together and I’m pleased to say that we do at the NWN.
We moved into new offices this year and the sales and editorial teams sit at adjacent desks. We are friends as well as colleagues and this proximity ensures we all know what we are all working on and we can contribute to each other’s targets.
We run the Newbury Weekly News Best in Business Awards at Newbury Racecourse, which this year was the most successful to date, with a sell-out 330 audience and a record profit.
In addition, we publish a range of popular editorial supplements, all supported by a strong advertising base. In fact, revenue from supplements grew in 2018.
We have a thriving website and a fast-growing and highly-engaged social media audience. Through promotion, we have grown audience to our online jobs pages by 2,011% in 2018 and to our business pages by 429%.
Our efforts led to a relatively modest circulation decline in 2018, which was 2.3 per cent less than the previous year.
We were so delighted that these efforts were recognised by the judges in the Regional Press Awards. No tricks, no gimmicks… just what we do week in, week out.
So roll on 2019.
I hope this is the year I get to write the headline I’ve always wanted to — ‘Local newspaper editor wins National Lottery’.
Except I don’t do the National Lottery. It’s a mug’s game.
