Rhiannon J Davies, members of The Ferret and student journalists outside The Community Newsroom.
Photo credit: Angela Catlin
These are challenging times to start a magazine. Following Covid-19 and with dwindling advertising revenues, publishers are struggling. DC Thomson is just one company planning job cuts and closures.
But that’s not the story for every publication.
At least it hasn’t been the case for Rhiannon J Davies, editor and founder of Greater Govanhill. But what sets the thriving community magazine apart?
“We really wanted people to feel like it was for everyone in the community”
RHIANNON J DAVIES
‘Community’ may be the key term, but, according to Rhiannon, ‘positive, uplifted and connected’ were three words which founded Greater Govanhill in 2020.
Drawing from her travels and journalistic background, Rhiannon set up the magazine that year following a 2018 move to Govanhill. She was inspired to start the publication after discovering widespread perceptions of her new home were inaccurate and unfair.
As she immersed herself in the culturally diverse community, Rhiannon saw a gap between her experience of Govanhill and public perceptions.
“[I was] immediately struck by the difference between how Govanhill was talked about in a lot of the media and how it was perceived more widely in Glasgow and beyond, vs the reality of actually living in Govanhill.”
This reality, Rhiannon said, was a ‘very welcoming, very friendly, very vibrant’ community with lots to offer and diverse stories to tell.
In print and online, Greater Govanhill highlights a broad range of issues impacting the locality. Every colourful front cover bares the slogan ‘the stories that matter to you’ and spotlights a theme directly relating to the neighbourhood, from Black Lives Matter to housing, littering and integration.
“We really wanted people to feel like it was for everyone in the community,” Rhiannon said of the magazine.
Being for the community not only means providing and tailoring content but also supporting the community to get involved and create the content themselves. From a newsroom in the heart of the suburb (shared with investigative journalism platform The Ferret), Rhiannon works with local illustrators, photographers and volunteers to put the free, multi-lingual magazine together. Breaking down journalistic barriers by providing a platform for anyone who wants to take it.
Founded over the pandemic, Greater Govanhill concentrates on a previously under-represented and misjudged area, setting it apart from other projects.
Print copies of Greater Govanhill. Photo credit: Lauren Burns
Although Rhiannon said she is “really, really sad” to see big magazines (including Dundee titles Platinum and Shout!) shut and jobs lost, the current state of the industry and Greater Govanhill’s future doesn’t worry her at the moment.
“I think our model is very different,” she said. “I think what we've seen happen at DC Thomson is the same things we've seen happen now with lots of local media. DC Thomson is a Scotland-based organisation, and it's family-owned and run. But it's still a big media corporation that has lots and lots of different titles, doing it in a money-making way.
“As these big giants fall, there’s space in the cracks for people to actually do things that are much more grassroots and bottom-up as opposed to top-down.”
With these losses, space is opening up in the industry. Out of closure comes opportunity for magazines like Greater Govanhill who are, potentially, in greater need of exposure, believes Rhiannon.
D.C. Thomson’s main headquarters in Dundee. Photo credit: ydam
Another Glasgow project is the Westender, run by Suzanne Martin. Suzanne shares similarities with Rhiannon and witnessed “huge changes for journalists and publishing” since establishing the Westender 15 years ago.
“It’s all to do with how readers access their news, but it has opened other opportunities – such as hyper-local magazines. If you can get the mix of interesting articles right, across print and digital platforms, then local is winning.
“There are issues, rising paper costs being a major one, but there aren’t always. By believing in print but investing in digital Westender is making it work – and flourishing.”
To make a community magazine successful, Suzanne says it’s important to speak to “your readership directly about the things they find important and interesting”. She adds: “It’s about building a community who are invested in your product and identify with it, rather than throwing advertising at them. The fact you as a business care MUST shine through.”
The University of Glasgow at the centre of the West End. Photo credit: Johnny Briggs, @johnnyboylee (Unsplash)
Rhiannon adds: “I'm a big believer in the importance of being a non-profit organisation. That doesn't mean we don't make money but it means that any profits we get are invested back into the community, that's been a part of our cause.
“We have enough money to produce the magazine and to do things we want to do. But we're not doing it to make profits for shareholders. And that's the difference, I think, in terms of how it's perceived, and also how it's run. Because we're not making decisions purely on a profit basis, we're making decisions based on value to the community. And that has a lot of meaning.”
Comments