VV_October Web 20-compressed

Village Voice October/November 2020
VILLAGE VOICE
200 TH EDITION
In communication terms it would be fair
to say Village Voice has stood the test of
time. When people opened the orange
covered first edition in the summer of
1987, Google was still ten years away.
YouTube was 18 years away and
Facebook wouldn’t make an appearance
for another 20 years. Twitter was the noise
that birds made and Tik-Tok the sound
the clock made.
Yet, for its day, Village Voice itself was
somewhat revolutionary. There was much
debate in the Penn and Tylers Green Residents’
Association at the time on how to replace the
quarterly bulletin that had been delivered to a
hundred or so paid-up members but was dying
on its feet through apathy.
It took an enormous leap of faith - and
organisation - for the association to gamble on
delivering a magazine free of charge to
everyone in Penn and Tylers Green, relying
entirely on income from advertising.
There were some on the committee who had
their doubts. I well remember one saying :
“Well I think it’s mad, but let’s give it a go.”
Personally, I’d always been convinced of the
business case. The 1980s saw a boom in free
local newspapers, relying completely on
advertising and efficient distribution, and they
were all successful. As a journalist I had been
involved in an experimental national free
Sunday newspaper - the Sunday Journal -
which was doing very nicely until the
established press leaned on the advertisers
because they saw it as a potential major threat.
The Sunday Journal went under but it was
ahead of its time. The same successful format
re-emerged years later in the form of Metro.
Village Voice grew from strength to strength
because its readers got involved with it, its
advertisers backed it and a dedicated team of
volunteers went out in all weathers to deliver it.
They still do.
People often talk of the great “community”
we have here in Penn & Tylers Green, and that
is certainly true. I believe VV has played a vital
part in that and continues to do so. Keeping
people informed helps keep communities
together.
Social media has an increasingly important
local role to play of course. It has been
noticeable how many neighbourhood Facebook
and WhatsApp groups appeared in our
community during the coronavirus outbreak and
how useful they have been. But social media is
still in its relative infancy and needs time to
mature and develop. It is still fractionalised and
it’s estimated around a third of the population
don’t access it.
In the meantime Village Voice plops on the
doormat every couple of months to inform,
entertain and maybe enlighten. Long may it do
so. Peter Brown, editor for the first 112 editions
VV - 200 Editions & Counting!
Village Voice production is a real team effort,
and always has been. To produce a magazine to
professional standards requires organisation -
with good processes in place, to ensure the
magazine has good content that readers want to
read, and an income stream from advertising to
cover production costs. VV production starts
every 8 weeks in our regular 'call out' to the
clubs, societies, organisations and individuals
who contribute on a regular basis. Hilary Forbes
reaches out to remind everyone. Mike Bisset
has been in the village for 17 years so thinks he
may have contributed to about the last 82
editions of VV! We have a number of keen
photographers who regularly and occasionally
contribute. Special thanks to Eddie Morton and
Keith Hawes for their regular contributions. (the
2 photos on the next page were chosen by Eddie
as his favourites from earlier editions of VV)
As editor, I work closely with everyone in
www.pennandtylersgreen.org.uk