History

The neighbouring communities of Balerno and Currie have histories going back centuries. However, in May 1975, Scotland-wide local government reorganisation brought both former Midlothian villages within the western boundaries of the newly-established City of Edinburgh District Council.

In the first instance, this led to significant increases in many people’s domestic rates—up by 170% in some cases. Secondly, it inspired concerns that, with the loss of local employment following the closure of the mills along the upper Water of Leith valley plus the planned development of new housing schemes in both communities, the villages risked losing their distinct sense of community, becoming mere dormitory suburbs of the expanding capital.

Thirdly, having seen at least locally-organised event cancelled due to a lack of awareness (a small poster in the window of the local Co-op apparently not being sufficient to spread the word), a small group of people from Currie, Balerno and the student union at Heriot-Watt University’s Riccarton campus resolved to launch a local community newspaper.

In the beginning…

The result was Currie and Balerno News, which debuted at the beginning of February 1976. Edited and put together by Balerno resident Graham Priestley (with the help of Jim Sheach, Tina Harkess, Ray Smith, Mel Young, and Moira Young), the first issue was delivered free to local households. From its second issue, in March 1976, the paper began to “earn its keep” with a 5p cover price and was sold through local shops, businesses and by individuals.

While all 1,000 copies of that second issue “sold out” – ensuring, Graham somewhat boldly promised, “that the paper is here to stay” – it wasn’t always plain sailing during the years that followed. Currie & Balerno News genuinely faced closure on several occasions, most frequently because of an insufficient number of volunteers – and, especially the potential lack of a coordinating editor – to keep things going.

And yet, front page stories warning of an impending end were invariably followed by subsequent issues revealing that someone had stepped forward at the last moment; in time, Currie & Balerno News built up genuine support from residents and local businesses alike, and so ultimately survived—albeit, sometimes by the skin of its teeth!

Monthly, But NOT Every Month…

During 1976, Currie & Balerno News appeared every month, February to December—a total of 11 issues. However, the stresses of corralling a sufficient number of volunteers to put the August issue together, during people’s already-booked summer holidays in July, clearly left its mark. The following year, 1977, the editorial team decided to introduce a special July/August “summer” issue.

In contrast, editions of Currie & Balerno News continued to appear at the start of January, despite this requiring the paper’s busy production, printing, and distribution process (see below) to be fitted in alongside everybody’s Christmas and Hogmanay preparations.

Common sense eventually prevailed: in the November 1987 issue, Graham – by now chairperson of the paper’s trustees – announced that the following issue would cover both Christmas and New Year. Consequently, since 1988, Currie & Balerno News has published 10 monthly issues each calendar year, with the July/August and December/January editions marking the publication’s “traditional” summer and winter breaks.

Keeping Going…

“If it is fun to produce a first issue and think about a second,” Graham noted in an article marking the paper’s 20th anniversary in 1996, “it takes constant hard work and discipline to go on meeting the deadlines month in and month out, and to balance the books.”

Because of this – and particularly the latter, financial point – Graham suggested that not many community publications survived more than a few years. Even by 1996, Currie & Balerno News had outlived many of its contemporaries across Edinburgh—including several which had supposedly enjoyed the financial support of the city council-funded Edinburgh Community Newspaper Trust (ECNT).

As an example, Graham pointed to the 1975-launched Tollcross & District News, one of the principal inspirations for the original team behind Currie & Balerno News. That paper had “soon paid the penalty of criticising its sponsors, [Edinburgh] District Council, too vigorously and too often, lost their support and perished.”

C&B News carries on…

Full disclosure: Currie & Balerno News – which, from February 2011 (issue 363) was rebranded C&B News – arguably benefited from one such community newspaper closure when journalist Alex Schweitzer-Thompson, former managing editor of the South Edinburgh Echo (launched 1998, closed 2009), was appointed the paper’s 11th editor in late 2013.

Back in 1996, Graham had put the survival of C&B News down to two things: a “steady recruitment of committed volunteers to help produce the paper (with a bit of pleading now and again)”; and access to “a stable local business community to take our advertising space”. This remains very much the case today. Thanks to both, C&B News continued to appear during even the severest coronavirus-inspired lockdowns of 2020/21, and has been distributed free-of-charge since April 2020.

Curiously enough, Edinburgh’s other currently surviving-in-print community news titles – such as The Portobello Reporter (launched June 1980), the Broughton-focused Spurtle (February 1994), and The Leither magazine (2004) – are essentially similar operations: freely distributed publications supported by both volunteer contributors and paid-for advertising from local businesses.

Not Just About Currie and Balerno…

Currie & Balerno News initially began as a 10 page, A4 title with what might be charitably described as a “home-made” feel—arguably best represented by its partly-hand-drawn logo and the line illustrations of (initially) central Balerno and Currie which alternated on the masthead.

However, despite having such a geographically-specific name, increased contributions and support from residents in Juniper Green led to the team officially extending the paper’s coverage and distribution into Currie’s eastern neighbour from March 1979 (issue 36). The northern residential estate of Baberton (later Baberton Mains) followed from April 1982 (issue 70). Colinton was added to the masthead from March 2014 (issue 394).

Arguably more important than the choice to expand the publication’s reach was the decision in 1979 NOT to change the name. Just as well: who would now ask for Currie, Balerno, Juniper Green, Baberton Mains & Colinton News by name? (Or, even worse: CBJGBM&C News?!?)

A Local Platform …

C&B News continues to provide a local platform to share the talents, expertise, interests and achievements of local people. Groups and organisations continue to use the publication to communicate with local – and not so local – readers.

Published articles have been used at public inquiries, and senior officials have been obliged to explain controversial decisions within its pages. Many local Community Councillors, City Councillors, MSPs and MPs have contributed – and continue to contribute – to C&B News every issue.

Extracts are known to have been circulated in council offices, while the publication has earned respect as a valuable information source by users of Edinburgh Libraries.

Technical Improvements…

C&B News was launched at a time when new alternatives to hot metal typesetting had made printing somewhat easier, less expensive and more accessible to the public. Nevertheless, during its earliest years, production of the paper remained both time-consuming and volunteer-intensive.

Initially, all articles had to be gathered together (with hand-written submissions typed up) before being sent off for typesetting. Any submitted photographic prints (remember those?) also needed to be scanned by the printer—at an individual cost, often limiting the number of pictures included in each issue. Then “a merry band of helpers” (under the supervision of the editor/coordinator) had to physically “cut ‘n’ paste” (using scissors and glue) all the articles together onto page templates. These were then delivered to the printer. Yet more volunteers then helped fold and collate the thousands of resulting A3 sheets, compiling the completed copies. Finally, these were distributed (again, by volunteers) to the participating retail outlets.

During the 1990s, the paper’s seventh editor Neil C Scott successfully argued for the introduction of (at the time, somewhat basic) computer-based desktop publishing. Today, while the management committee remains integral to the paper’s ongoing success (providing editorial and financial direction, contributing articles and ideas, proofing pages, and organising the local distribution), C&B News has long been put together solely by a freelance editor, using industry-standard Adobe software. Compilation, binding and initial delivery of the finished copies are also now carried out by the printers.

Archive Copies

In late-March 2020, as the Covid-19 Pandemic took hold, the management team decided that, if the paper was going to be distributed free of charge, it made sense to provide a digital version (PDF) downloadable from the C&B News website.

Currently, the most recent 10 issues – a year’s worth – can be accessed through this website: the current issue from the homepage, the rest from here. Web-friendly PDFs of issues going back to February 2014 can be requested from the editor.

If you’re interested in looking back across the entire archive of C&B News, print copies can be accessed at Currie Library, Edinburgh’s Central Library (Edinburgh and Scottish Collection), and the National Library of Scotland (General Reading Room)—although you will have to order them in advance at the latter.

Editors

During its earliest decades, the person ultimately in charge of putting C&B News together each issue tended NOT to refer to themselves as “Editor”, instead preferring titles such as “coordinator” or “convener” of the production team—unsurprising, given that a big part of the job was coordinating the committee members “cutting ‘n’ pasting” each issue together.

The shift to using desktop publishing software to compile issues of C&B News made the role more obviously “editorial” in the sense of a single person designing and laying out all the pages.

However, for simplicity’s sake, we now refer to all the post-holders since 1976 as “editor”. In chronological order, these are:

Graham Priestley: issues 1 – 34, February 1976 to January 1979.

Moira Young: issues 35 – 43, February to November 1979. 

Linda Gray: issues 44 – 63, December 1979 to September 1981. 

Joyce Ross: issues 64 – 107, October 1981 to September 1985. 

Maureen Ainslie: issues 108 – 166, October 1985 to May 1991.

Caroline Ainslie: issue 167, June 1991.

Neil C Scott: issues 168 – 255, July/August 1991 to April 2000.

Jacqui Howe: issues 256 – 283, May 2000 to February 2003. 

Mhairi McDonald-Greig: issues 284 – 385, March 2003 to April 2013.

Jo MacDougall: issues 386 – 390, May to October 2013.

Alex Schweitzer-Thompson: issues 391 – 433, November 2013 to February 2018. 

James T Harding: issues 434 – 455, March 2018 to April 2020.

Paul Fisher Cockburn: issue 456 – present, May 2020 onwards.