A volunteer-led community news magazine will publish its 500th monthly edition this Friday.
C&B News is distributed free, 10 months a year, in five communities in south-west Edinburgh: Currie, Balerno, Juniper Green, Baberton Mains, and Colinton.
Launched as Currie & Balerno News in February 1976, the “paper” has never failed to produce a promised issue – continuing in print even during successive Covid-19 lockdowns during 2020 and 2021.
“Today, as always, C&B News aims to be a platform to display the rich talent, expertise, interests and achievements of local people,” said the paper’s chair, Gail Rankin.
“We don’t have a pool of paid journalists who write articles for the magazine, but benefit from the opinions and knowledge of local people to inform the wider community each month in the articles they submit.”
Paul Fisher Cockburn is a freelance journalist contracted to prepare each issue for publication. “I often describe myself as the ‘lucky 13th editor’, he said. “It’s been my good fortune to inherit a well-established and much loved publication which is loyally supported not just by its readers and contributors but also by so many local businesses that still actively choose to advertise in a print-first publication.”
C&B News has grown and evolved considerably since 1976, developing from a 10-page monochrome, text-based “newspaper” to a more visually inviting, 48-page full-colour magazine.
Although the 500th issue (cover-dated October 2024) will include an article celebrating notable previous editions, its main focus will remain recent and forthcoming local events and activities.
“Reporting and presenting what’s going on in the local community was the original motivation for launching C&B News,” says Paul. “That remains our aim today. And, hopefully, it’s what we – and our successors – will still be doing for many more issues to come.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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