Introduction:
The key to success is IMAGE.
You need to define, establish and promote a brand or image. And you need to refresh your brand with ongoing promotion, publicising what you do and graphically demonstrating IMPACT. Also contributing to image are planning and partnership (see below).
Planning:
The Foundation has worked closely with the Media Trust. They can help with creating and framing your stories via press, radio, film and television. They can provide volunteers and mentors. They may link you to seedcorn funding. They are especially useful at the planning stage providing training in all aspects of creating a communications strategy.
Partnership:
We’ve established the merits of working with colleges and Universities. You should also get close to your local authority. You may be able to get involved with or even absorb the Council’s own publication.
Manpower:
Having a dedicated worker or volunteer to find and write your stories is crucial. You are unlikely to be able to afford a full-time reporter but you could consider a
KTP Associate: “knowledge transfer partnerships” links you to a University partner. You may be able to employ a graduate for 2 years and receive a grant of 60% of the project cost – investigate @ www.ktponline.org.uk Or consider an
Internship where you give work experience to local students enrolled on media, journalism or communications courses. Again, working links with your local University will pay dividends.
Media:
There are the new media like broadband-based community radio and the internet and traditional media like radio, television and the press. We should not underestimate the potential of local newspapers, still the medium of choice for a big proportion of the public. Even so, local press is in decline: the big publishers are rationalising, cutting costs, reducing staff and therefore quality [“Meeting the news needs of local communities”, Media Trust, October 2010]. So, there is need and opportunity for you to gather and publish information about your local community.
Case Study:
Community Press Office, CPO Media
“One cannot unite a community without a newspaper or journal of some kind" - Gandhi
Background:
CPO Media was set up in 2002 as a response to an identified need to give people in deprived areas the confidence and motivation to enter the workforce. They offer work experience and provide bespoke design, print, media and public relations services to charities. Creating a community newsletter or newspaper is a very real way of taking control over the way an area and its residents are perceived. It counters negative stereotyping and reflects the aspirations of a community, laying the foundations for positive actions. CPO Media has produced over 300,000 community magazines, enabled 48 people to gain qualifications, 326 people to receive informal training and 23 people jobs; we’ve placed 300 volunteers and helped 200 grassroots groups and projects. They turn over £300,000 a year.
CPO Media in Immingham:
With European funding, CPO set up “IMMport” magazine in March 2002, for Immingham, a priority regeneration target. Grants sponsored production until March 2008. In April 2008, CPO Media formed and launched a number of publications in the summer; one of these was INSIGHT. This has meant that Immingham has had its own community publication, continuously, since the spring of 2002. Like all CPO Media publications INSIGHT Immingham is written by the community for the community it serves. It is a 32 page magazine, quarterfold printed in newsprint/heatset to give a ‘mock’ glossy appearance. It is delivered FREE to every home in and around Immingham (6,000 population).
Immingham has always considered itself badly served by local media (based at nearby Grimsby). Residents feel that the Grimsby Telegraph only reports bad news from Immingham and that the image of their town is very negative. It is paradoxical that the Port of Immingham is one of the richest in Europe whilst the town itself is amongst the poorest in the country.
Our local publications have allowed the grassroots to write about their community, independent of the paid press. CPO Media facilitates the magazine by offering training, equipment and encouragement. Other than proof reading and press passing they do not input directly onto the pages themselves. 75% of the pages are local stories about local events. Even ‘generic articles’, like film reviews are written by volunteers. INSIGHT is sustained by low cost advertising for community groups and small businesses who want to connect with the grassroots but struggle to pay mainstream advertising rates. The balance of the magazines costs are covered by CPO Media trading activities: print and design, web-design, media training and consultancy. Produced bi-monthly, INSIGHT has become and remains the voice of Immingham. CPO Media has the ambition to go monthly should it prove sustainable.
CPO Media’s founder and Managing Director is Stephen Ryder. He has worked as an editorial advisor for Northcliffe Media and been a cricket correspondent for ALL Out Cricket. In a previous life he taught English and games at an independent school. Steve sits on North East Lincolnshire’s Strategic Partnership and wrote their communications strategy based on ‘A new approach to communication in North East Lincolnshire’. It recommended partnership buy-in to the local council newspaper and the use of community journalists. This would save costs, improve readership and demonstrate objectivity. He also sits on the local Children’s Trust. CPO Media’s VOXX magazine – ‘for 16 to 25 year olds by 16 to 25 year olds’ won the Positive Images Award in 2009 for best magazine for young people by young people nationally. In 2010 it won the O2 Think Big Award, which recognises young people for using communications skills to make a difference in their communities.