Windmill News - The Development of a Community Magazine with A Difference

The development of a community magazine - an exercise in community building focussing on community based assets, social entrepreneurship , developing social connectedness and maintaining a vibrant community.

Windmill News - a Vision of Connections or a Connection of visions?

In September of 2004, a seed of an idea was finally watered with a number of volunteers coming together to start what was to become known as “The Windmill News”- a community magazine with a difference.

Numerous discussions had been held on assets based community development, and the enthusiasm for something “new and positive” was rife.

The Vision and Mission statements developed at that time summarize the philosophical premise on which the magazine was, and still is based.

The Vision was formulated according to current theoretical perspectives on community development which have been repeatedly proven to work, and are advocated by: the Department of Community Services who are the Neighbourhood Centre’s main funding body; NCOSS ; LCSA ; The Bank of IDEAS; The Community Builder’s Website and many other peak welfare organizations.

Briefly, the premises on which the idea was built were: Maintaining a vibrant community; utilizing a community’s assets; an experiment in community building; a road to social entrepreneurship and developing social connectedness.

The vision we developed was, and still is:

“To connect people within our community to each other and to provide opportunities for links to similar communities nationally and worldwide”

Our mission, which has since changed due to financial issues was to:

• produce a magazine on a bi-monthly basis
• deliver a minimum of 10,000 magazines to the immediate local area as well as surrounding neighbourhoods
• ensure that the content of the magazine consisted of interesting stories from the community, creating a forum for people to contribute
• ensure that the content has a different flavour to other current publications, including contributions from other communities nationally and worldwide
• develop a magazine that would become self supporting within the community by encouraging local businesses to place paid advertising in the magazine.

Cost was seen as an inhibitor so wages payable minimum and decided that the Advertising sales person would be the only paid person, with any other contribution to be voluntary, under the umbrella of the Neighbourhood Centre, with others to be paid as soon as the project became profitable. Profit was not seen as an initial priority.

All the others agreed to volunteer their time until such times as the magazine became a viable community project which would be seen as a positive and useful tool for the local community. At that point funding options would be looked at to cover at the very least the co-ordination process of the project, at best corporate sponsorship to cover co-ordination, community development and printing costs.

Priority was community connections at a much broader range than had previously been attempted by the Centre. Those actively involved were to be viewed as making a co-operative effort, building the magazine up to a solid base in the community so that then others in the community could be involved.

After 12 months an evaluation report was prepared, and this is available to anyone brave enough to try and duplicate what we did. (YES it’s worth attempting, just be prepared for hard work).

Sharing some of the issues

To describe the whole process is far too lengthy for this article, but as a point of interest, I’d like to share some of the issues we faced.

Shortly after the evaluation report was submitted, we came to the (what seemed sad at the time) decision that we had to change format due to costs we simply could not cover.

The result of that change has unexpectedly  been a huge step forward.

Today the Windmill News is a combined package.

Every 2 months, an A3 one doublesided page black and white publication is printed and distributed, along with a number of A3 size full colour posters which advertise not only the black and white publication, but also the new website!

Feature stories are deliberately “different” with a focus on entertainment and social activities as the feature story, and regular columns which touch on slightly controversial topics to inspire discussion and feedback. We will grow into whatever it is the community wants us to be. A community much larger than our original vision.

So if you decide to attempt a production such as this, what are some of the possible hurdles you may have to overcome? Here were a few of ours after 12 months:

Hurdles to overcome

Financial Support: The project was not externally funded therefore the cost factor was a constant issue throughout production of all 5 issues. Although the advertising covered some of the costs, it was never quite enough.

Support from Within: Despite growing support from the community, there was a reluctance from within the organization to view the project as either sustainable or worthy of internal support. With most of the work being done on a voluntary basis, the regular justification process of “defending” the project became a frustration and de-motivator for the producers. The retirement of one of the committee members from the original conception group in December meant the magazine no longer had active Committee involvement. The loss of this “link” may have contributed to this problem.

Advertising Costs Charged: We initially had comments from advertisers that our charges were too expensive compared to other publications. We hoped as each issue was published and advertisers realized the huge distribution numbers plus noticed our regular appearance, this would become less of a problem. It remained a problem until we changed format this year which reduced printing and therefore advertising costs.

Workload Much Larger Than Expectations: Because of lack of knowledge about magazine production, the workload for the editors and advertising manager were at least twice that of original expectations. The project needs more people actively involved, particularly with layout which is an incredibly time consuming task.

Conflicting Expectations About Content: Although the initial production was 24 pages, due to the cost factor the magazine had to be reduced to 12 pages.(double sided) Many items planned for original inclusion by the concept team were unable to be included. Repeated requests from the auspicing organization for inclusion of Centre material, recipes, photos, handy hints etc, at the same time as reduction in the length of the magazine to keep costs down became a no-win situation for the producers.

At the same time community groups were approaching the magazine with lists of activities they wanted printed and were dismayed to hear we did not have the space. These requests with consequent negotiations all took up time which was already scarce. A compromise which was taken up by a few community groups was that they write a story of interest which would attract attention to their group, rather than a point form list of activities. We still do not have enough space to print all stories submitted and have created a “waiting list”.

The Public’s Original Perception of The Magazine: This particular problem we decided to view as a compliment, but it did create issues. At a Car Show in the early stages, we distributed the magazine to people attending. The children who had come with us volunteered to do this. They all came back with handfuls of magazines, saying no-one wanted them! Puzzled, the adults had a turn. We eventually worked out what the problem was—we had to say “this is FREE, would you like one?” People presumed they cost money. This also explained to us the slow take-up of the magazine at our shop and business outlets.

A clearer message that the magazine was free on the cover resolved the problem, and most of our outlets need “topping up” ! Related to this problem, we found that if our magazine was amongst others which cost money, people were unlikely to pick it up. A donation of magazine stands and a bit of artwork now makes our magazine “stand out from the rest”.

Printing Problems: We were very fortunate to make contact with a printer who also produces his own publication. His free advice and support have been invaluable. We discovered however, that the publication programme we were using   was not compatible with what printers use. This creates numerous problems at print stage because the pages do not print up exactly as we designed them. The producers had to find the time to learn another programme in order to resolve this issue. Fortunately the printer offered to teach the basics free of charge.

Where We Are 18 Months Later

Let me be honest – in my 20 years in the field, this project has to be the most fitting scenario for the Eurythmics lyrics “There’s a fine line between pleasure and pain”.

The pain?

Lack of money, lack of enthusiasm (and in fact sometimes outright sabotage attempts) from those who did not understand current community work principles, lack of enough willing helpers (the age old principle of same old same old people pitch in the donated time..), the final “crunch” decision that there simply wasn’t enough money to continue the project as it was, despite the enormous number of voluntary hours committed to it by many,the difficulties faced trying to gain advertising when none of us had sales experience and those who did were unable to contribute time.

The constant late nights, pressure of deadlines, constantly battling the old school thoughts of what community work “should be”, lack of business knowledge within the auspicing organization,distribution nightmares, the incredible amount of liaison needed to run a project like this smoothly…..

The pleasure?

The amazing willingness and enthusiasm to contribute from members of the public not usually associated with the Centre.

The positive feedback from those in the community who received the magazine and requests for “the next issue” as though we were a well known magazine!

Connections made which have inspired sharing of resources which go beyond the Neighbourhood Centre. An example was the attempt of two Chambers of Commerce to collectively attract tourists to the area – something inspired by Windmill News! Also  interestingly, that old connections with organizations were re-established! (Yes it pays to be “seen and heard” in your community!

The interest and support from well known identities including actors Michael Pate and Hugh Keays Byrne, guitarist Phil Emmanuel, singer Billy Field, world famous didgeridoo player Mark Atkins.

Regular fascinating (and sometimes controversial!) columns from Christina Ferguson, film producer,Glenn Mullaney, Head IT Teacher at the local school  (Mullaney’s Murmurs) and now Parris Macleod, owner of Cloud Studios and Arias Judge. An absolute wealth of talent and connections to a side of our community Toukley Neighbourhood Centre would never have known!

An awesome website with amazing potential designed and maintained by a volunteer who is a qualified graphic artist, making the possibility for connections worldwide.

A forum to be developed on that site, opening up possibilities for communications between all sorts of people about all sorts of topics, but more exciting are the possibilities of sharing/exchanging resources with people this little Neighbourhood Centre hidden on the Central Coast of NSW may never ever have reached!

Yes it’s a fine line…but the pleasure of outcomes, as so often is the case in community work, outweighs the pain of establishing and maintaining a project of this nature. And there is always hope that through the principles of assets based community work, the ultimate aim will come to fruition…that a community, through it’s assets, creates something which helps itself.

That a vision of connections ultimately leads to a connection of visions!

Anyone who would like a copy of the evaluation report and/or copies of The Windmill News, please email windmillnews@integritynet.com.au.

Check out the Windmill News website (opens in a new browser window)

Veronique Moseley BSW JP
Executive Officer
Toukley Neighbourhood Centre

For further information

Contact	:	Veronique Moseley
Address	:	c/o TNC P.O. Box 55 Toukley NSW 2263
Phone	:	0421 038 910
Email	:	windmillnews@integritynet.com.au

WWW

:

http://windmillnewsonline.com