50 Years
“In Autumn 1975, a small group of people met in Balerno to discuss the possibility of starting a local newspaper. […] The idea progressed slowly until it was discovered that a similar group was meeting in Currie and included Heriot-Watt students already skilled in producing a student newspaper. With the merging of the two groups and a generous pump-priming donation of £30 from the Student’s association, the Currie & Balerno News was born.”
C&B News, issue 200, October 1994
The Origins of C&B News
Back in the mid-1970s, decades before the arrival of the internet and social media, new alternatives to hot metal typesetting (such as offset lithography) were making community-focused publishing slightly easier, less expensive and much more accessible than preciously.
As a result, volunteer-run, non-commercial community newsletters, newspapers and magazines were springing up all over the place—especially within communities which felt either overlooked or marginalised by the mainstream media of the day.
Surprisingly, these included Currie and Balerno.
Fertile ground…
Until 16 May 1975, Currie and Balerno had been neighbouring villages within the historic County of Midlothian. Following Scotland-wide reorganisation of local government, they found themselves within the extended western boundary of the newly-established City of Edinburgh District Council (as well as part of the wider Lothian Region Council). This led to significant increases in many residents’ domestic rates—up by 170% in some cases. More generally, it was a reminder of what could be imposed from “outside”, without consultation or regard to local feelings.
Secondly, the ongoing closures of major local employers – especially the mills along the upper Water of Leith valley – had led to increasing numbers of residents commuting to and from Balerno and Currie for work. Combined with proposed new housing developments around (and even between) the two villages, there were concerns that Currie and Balerno could end up becoming characterless dormitory suburbs for the Scottish capital.
Thirdly, having seen a fundraising Easter Dance (organised by the Balerno Gala Committee) cancelled due to a lack of public awareness, some people felt there was a need for a local publication which could keep residents in both Currie and Balerno up-to-date with what was going on in their locality.
In the beginning…
Currie & Balerno News debuted at the beginning of February 1976, produced by Balerno residents Graham Priestley and Ray Smith, Currie resident Moria Young and their supportive “teachers” in all-things publishing, Heriot-Watt students Tina Harkess, Jim Sheach, Jon Side and Mel Young. Copies of the 10-page, A4-sized “community newspaper” were delivered free, by hand, to a significant proportion of households in both villages.
This was, however, an unavoidable one-off, a way to introduce Currie & Balerno News to as many residents as possible. From its second issue, there was a cover price (originally 5p) to help pay the printing bill, and copies were sold through a small but growing range of local shops, businesses and individuals.
All 1,000 copies of the second edition “sold out”—ensuring, Graham somewhat boldly promised, “that the paper is here to stay”. Of course, he was more right than he knew, but it certainly wasn’t always plain sailing during the early years that followed. Money was often tight, especially as printing costs began to rise well above contemporary rates of inflation—which, this being the late 1970s and early 1980s, were hardly low.
The Threat of Closure…
Like most other community newspapers before and since, Currie & Balerno News genuinely faced closure on numerous occasions, thanks to there seldom being – despite often appearances to the contrary – a sufficient number of volunteers able to commit the necessary hours needed to produce the paper.
Without Graham Priestley’s particular enthusiasm and tenacity, it’s quite possible that Currie & Balerno News would have folded after just two-to-three years—like many other volunteer-run community news titles across the city and further afield.
Time and again, though, one issue’s dire front page warning of impending closure would be followed the next month by the news that someone had stepped forward or been persuaded to take on the coordinating role. As the years became decades, Currie & Balerno News not merely survived—it began to prosper.
Monthly, But NOT Every Month…
During calendar year 1976, Currie & Balerno News appeared every month, February to December—a total of 11 issues. However, corralling a sufficient number of volunteers to put together the August 1976 issue, during previously-booked summer holidays in July, clearly proved far too stressful and problematic.
It never happened again. In 1977, the team introduced the now-traditional “July/August” edition.
In contrast, despite it requiring the paper’s volunteer-intensive production, printing, and distribution to be squeezed in alongside everybody’s Christmas and Hogmanay preparations, Currie & Balerno News continued to publish a January edition. Common sense eventually prevailed in 1987, when the first December/January edition appeared. Since 1988, Currie & Balerno News has published 10 monthly issues each calendar year.
Keeping Going…
“If it is fun to produce a first issue and think about a second,” Graham noted in an article commemorating 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.”
These challenges, Graham suggested, explained why relatively few community publications survived for more than two-to-three years. Even by 1996, Currie & Balerno News had outlived many contemporaries across Edinburgh, and would continue to do so—including several publications which had supposedly enjoyed greater financial security by securing funding from the local authority-backed Edinburgh Community Newspaper Trust.
As an example, Graham highlighted the fate of the 1975-launched Tollcross & District News, an initial inspiration for the original team behind Currie & Balerno News. Thanks to its strong political campaigning stance, Graham argued, this particular community paper had “soon paid the penalty of criticising its sponsors, [Edinburgh] District Council, too vigorously and too often, lost their support and perished”.
Surviving…
Currie & Balerno News – which, from February 2011 (issue 363) officially rebranded itself as C&B News – benefited from one such local community newspaper closure when journalist Alex Schweitzer-Thompson – former managing editor of South Edinburgh Echo (launched 1998, closed 2009) – became the publication’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 the 2020/21 Covid-19 Pandemic. Significantly, this coincided with the belated dropping of the publication’s cover price—which had been frozen at 40p for some 20 years. Today, the magazine remains free to pick up, with all its production costs covered by the advertising carried in each issue.
Not Just About Currie and Balerno…
Despite having such a geographically-specific name, increased contributions and support from several residents in Juniper Green led to Currie & Balerno News officially extending its coverage and distribution to Currie’s eastern neighbour from March 1979 (issue 36). The residential estate of Baberton (now Baberton Mains) followed three years later in April 1982 (issue 70). Somewhat belatedly, Colinton was officially added to the masthead from March 2014 (issue 394).
It’s fair to say that the present C&B News team remain grateful for one particular decision made by their predecessors back in 1979—the choice NOT to revise the paper’s name. Instead of rebranding the paper as Currie, Balerno & Juniper Green News, the team opted instead to add a subheading listing the additional neighbourhood(s).
This is just as well: who would want to ask for Currie, Balerno, Juniper Green, Baberton Mains & Colinton News by name? Or, worse, attempt to ask for CBJGBM&C News?
Back Issues…
In late-March 2020, as the Covid-19 Pandemic took hold, the management team decided that, with the publication dropping its long-established cover price to simplify distribution, it made sense to also provide a free digital version—viewable and downloadable via the C&B News website. This is now usually published a couple of days before the print edition is available in the shops.
Currently, digital copies of the most recent 10 issues – a year’s run – can be accessed directly from this website; pdfs of issues going back to February 2014 can be requested from the editor.
If you’re interested in looking further back, across the entire archive of C&B News, then print copies can be accessed at Currie Library, Edinburgh’s Central Library (Edinburgh and Scottish Collection), and (if requested in advance) the National Library of Scotland’s General Reading Room.
—Paul Fisher Cockburn
Published by The Currie and Balerno News, a private company limited by guarantee and without shareholders. Registered in Scotland No. 275967.