A brief history of shmuPRESS

Find out more about our community magazines!

During the Covid-19 outbreak the editorial volunteers and the shmu support team are working hard to continue to produce community magazines. We are aware of the important role our magazines have to play in circulating information as well as celebrating local communities and we want to continue to do this during these challenging times. 

Background to Community Magazine Production at shmu

Since 2001 shmu has delivered a set of community magazines aimed at informing and inspiring communities with news that's relevant to them.  This strand of work has evolved over the years and includes the collation, design, print and distribution of the magazines by the shmuPRESS team.  The content comes from the communities and the editorial teams within these regeneration areas.

The community magazines have become another successful mechanism for addressing local issues and building skills and capacity in the regenration areas. Each magazine is quarterly, with each becoming a platform for dialogue between the communities and service providers, an information source and a topical forum debating both local and national issues.  

shmuPRESS actively supports communities to produce their own magazines ensuring that these publications reflect the issues and concerns of each area.  The magazines also exist to encourage the  celebration and sharing of  good news stories! 

Circulation figures:

Publication

Circulation

Tilly Tattle

3,200

Middlefield Mirror

1,200

Torry's Vision

5,200

Seaton Scene

3,500

Cumming North

3,500

Woodside Free Press

2,500

Mastrick Matters

3,800

Independent editorial teams within each community produce the magazines. These editorial teams are members of the community who volunteer their time to coordinate and produce the content for the publications. shmu offers support to teams and participants throughout the production process. 

shmu staff deliver outreach support to local individuals, community projects/groups and clubs so that they can have a regular input into their community magazine. These participants contribute via articles and photographs.

Magazine production develops various skills e.g. literacy; communication; working to deadlines; team working; researching; interviewing; design and layout; journalism; digital photography and proof reading.  The end result is a strong sense of achievement.

Community magazines are a powerful element in strengthening local democracy and activating citizens. By giving a voice to the muted majority and encouraging service providers to respond to legitimate requests, the magazines significantly empower the vulnerable, voiceless and otherwise socially excluded in target communities. 

If you would like to volunteer with shmuPRESS you need to live in one of the areas that we produce a magazine for. To get involved in any of the community magazines contact Laura Young at shmu here:

DD: 01224 515 013 or E: laura.young@shmu.org.uk