We’re still alive and kicking
AS Dr Guthrie once said to me, after I had written his premature obituary as a young reporter on the Lyme Regis News: “Rumours of my death are grossly exaggerated, young man!”
The same applies to the View from Lyme Regis. Contrary to popular conjecture that we are going out of business, we are not dead.
My apologies to those who I have upset in this column over the years – and to one town councillor in particular who has been revelling in the “collapse of Evans’ publishing empire,” but the View from Lyme Regis is still in business, albeit under new ownership.
We have had our difficulties in recent weeks but I am pleased to say that there is a firm future for the View and its sister titles following the acquisition of the papers by Jerry Ramsdale, a highly successful businessman who also owns the Mariners Hotel in Lyme.
Other newspapers were interested, mainly to take us out of the market place, but Jerry thought the View papers were too good to go to the wall.
Everything has happened so quickly over the past few days that Jerry and I have not been able to sit down and discuss in detail how the View group will go forward. But I am confident that we will continue to give the same comprehensive coverage of local news that has made the View from Lyme Regis so popular.
I am meeting Jerry at the London Boat Show on Thursday where he is launching a new website business and he plans to visit our offices next week to meet all the staff.
I am delighted that we have been able to keep together most of the staff who have worked so hard over the past few years to make the View what it is today. They have been magnificent.
It was a worrying time for them and I am grateful to each one of them who knuckled down over the Christmas period and got on with what we do best – publishing great community newspapers.
We expected a good kicking from our opposition, especially the Bridport and Lyme Regis News. So many inaccurate rumours were doing the rounds, including that we were £2 million in debt, an obscenely gross exaggeration which put off one potential investor, and that I had sacked all my staff apart from my two daughters.
To put a stop to it all I agreed to be interviewed by Adrianne Maslem, reporter for the Lyme Regis News. Adrianne produced a fair an accurate report and handled our possible demise in a sympathetic manner.
I’m afraid I can’t be so complimentary about some of her colleagues who were ringing and texting my staff and generally making the situation worse for them.
Ironically, whilst we were already talking to other interested parties , it was Adrianne’s story that caught Jerry Ramsdale’s eye and was instrumental in him buying the papers. I really should send her a bouquet.
Generally, the people of Lyme have been very supportive over the past few difficult days. I received only one sarcastic remark but was touched by dozens of calls and e-mails wishing us luck in rescuing the papers.
But you don’t work in newspapers for as long as I have without making a few enemies. So I’m happy for them to have had their day at my expense.
Every newspaper group has been severely affected by the downturn in advertising revenue over the last year and there have been many casualties up and down the country.
Newsquest, the owners of the Bridport and Lyme Regis News, have sacked dozens of staff over the last year, making a number redundant on Christmas Eve 2008. They even considered doing away with the Lyme Regis News a few months back.
Since then they have reduced their local reporter to working one day a week on the Lyme edition and now focus on the more controversial coverage of local events.
They turn up to very few events these days whereas the policy of the View from Lyme Regis, which distributes between 2,500 and 4,000 every week depending on the time of year, is that we report on as many local events as possible.
I have never been more convinced that there is a place for a newspaper reporting the community events of this town and I look forward to working with Jerry Ramsdale over the coming months to demonstrate we deserve the faith that the people of Lyme have shown in us.
Reported missing after cup final celebration
CONGRATULATIONS to Lyme Regis Football Club on winning the Perry Street League Coronation Cup on Boxing Day.
The 4-0 victory over South Petherton was one of the most comprehensive on record and sets them up nicely for further success this season.
I have great memories of the Coronation Cup, both as a player and former club chairman.
It was the only major cup success I had as a player when we beat Beaminster at Sector Lane, Axminster, towards the end of my playing career.
I was the oldest member of the team and celebrated knowing I was unlikely to be on the winning side again. After a tour of the Lyme pubs I ended up at No 31 Kingsway, home of the Curtis family where there was always an open door on Boxing Day for all and sundry.
I was accompanied by my second cousin, the late Pat Crate who was stood on a chair reciting 'The Thin Red Line,' as was his wont, when there was a knock on the door at midnight. It was the local police sergeant who walked in and announced: “Mr Crate, you have been reported missing by your wife!”
The sergeant offered to give Pat a lift home and as he went out of the front door he turned to me and said: “Evans, I’m never going drinking with you again!”
www.viewfrompublishing.co.uk
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