There are lots of publications described as local magazines, but one of the magazines we print every quarter at Chichester Print takes the word local rather more literally than most.
Since Spring 2023 we've been printing the Parklands Residents' Association Magazine, which is designed specifically for the people living in the Parklands area of Chichester.
It isn't trying to reach the whole city or maximise its circulation to make itself more attractive to advertisers. It exists primarily to keep one particular community informed about what's happening around them.
And that makes it a rather lovely print job to be involved with.
Every quarter the finished magazine contains a mixture of local news, events, photographs, letters, community issues and advertising from businesses and organisations. Over the years it has featured local artists, children's artwork, the 50th anniversary of Parklands Community Primary School, refuse collectors, volunteers, open gardens, garage sales and community events.
The latest issue remembers a long-standing resident who had given a great deal of his time to the local community.
Taken individually, these might simply be interesting stories to read when the magazine drops through your letterbox. But after fourteen issues, something else is beginning to happen.
The printed magazines are becoming a physical record of the community.
That's one of the things we still love about print.
A social media post can disappear down a timeline within hours. An email can be read and deleted. But a printed magazine can sit on a coffee table, get passed to a neighbour, find its way into a drawer or, occasionally, survive for years.
Someone could pick up one of these magazines twenty years from now and discover what was happening in Parklands in 2026.
For us, producing a community magazine isn't particularly glamorous print. That's not the point. What matters is producing something consistently, reliably and to a quality that people will want to pick up and read when it arrives through their door.
We're pleased to have printed every issue of the new-look Parklands Magazine since Spring 2023.
And hopefully there are plenty more still to come.
