WE ARE 100!
Our 100-issue centenary has been a great opportunity for me to reflect on the last 10 years and review our unique position in the local marketplace, writes Live Magazines’ MD Tedd Walmsley
It’s been wonderful to receive such positive and heart-warming good wishes as we celebrate our 100th issue of Live Ribble Valley magazine!
We have printed and delivered more than 1.8 million magazines which is in itself is hard to believe – that’s 1.5 million letterboxes and I’d like to thank our delivery teams for their loyalty and continued hard work. Rain or shine our unsung heroes led by Charles, David and Frank ensure the other deliverers receive our magazines on time. This model allows for flexibility and is one of the main reasons for our commercial success by getting such great response for our advertisers.
Across the 100 issues we’ve also printed more than 40,000 pages, some doubters wondered whether the Ribble Valley had enough relevant content, yet my editor and I still debate which articles and positive features are to appear in each issue. It has continued to help our local charities, launch events and report good news and the achievements of both our residents and award-winning businesses.
We are delighted that our magazines gets such an enthusiastic and positive response from our readers.
A firm fan of Live Ribble Valley, doctor Naila Sajjad Mirza, has kept almost every copy of the magazine since it began.
Having lived in Manchester and London before arriving in the Ribble Valley, Naila and her husband now live in Clayton-le-Dale.
“We are both keen walkers so when we discovered the Ribble Valley and all the beautiful villages here, it was perfect for us,” explains Naila, whose husband is a consultant specialising in infectious diseases at Wythenshaw Hospital.
“When I received the very first copy of Live Ribble Valley I really found it so informative about the whole area and interesting at the same time. There are so many different themes and we particularly enjoy the articles on walking and the Forest of Bowland.”
Naila, whose daughter studied at Westholme and Clitheroe Royal Grammar before going on to Liverpool School of Medicine, adds: “I didn’t want to throw any of the magazines away as I keep going back to them as they are so interesting!”
Using some poetic licence we’ve designed more than 5,000 adverts and written 5,000 commercial editorials taking literally tens of thousands of photographs along the way. It would be appropriate at this point to thank my talented editor, writers, photographers and designers supported by my production team – we are very proud and grateful to each and every one of them.
As Live Ribble Valley celebrates 100 issues, our sister title Live Preston & Fylde celebrates 80 issues and we’ve just started the distribution of our Ribble Valley Revealed magazine dedicated to tourism. We are thrilled with their successes particularly given the decline of print media in general and the closure of many of our local competitors, and on a wider geographic level the closure of long established publications.
We in turn look forward to the continued development of our products and in the next few months you may see new designs, exciting new papers and other creative options to further evolve the look and feel of our titles. Please feel free to contact me if you think we’ve missed something out or need new areas of interest to be included.
It remains only for me to thank our advertisers, congratulate our staff, past and present, for their passion for our magazines and also to say thank you to our readers for responding so positively to our magazine. Let’s raise a glass and toast the next 100 issues of Live Ribble Valley – cheers!
