History

“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 easier, less expensive and much more accessible than ever before.

As a result, volunteer-run, non-commercial community newspapers and newsletters were springing up all over the place—especially within communities which felt either overlooked or marginalised by the mainstream media of the day.

Surprisingly, perhaps, this included Currie and Balerno. Why was this?

Three Reasons

Firstly: on 16 May 1975, the residents of Currie and Balerno – previously neighbouring villages within the historic county of Midlothian – had awoken to suddenly find themselves within the western geographical boundary of the newly-established City of Edinburgh District Council, thanks to Scotland-wide reorganisation of local government. On a purely practical level, 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 on residents from “outside”, without consultation or warning.

Secondly, the ongoing closures of major local employers – especially the numerous mills along the upper Water of Leith valley – was leading to increasing numbers of residents commuting to and from Balerno and Currie for work. This, combined with proposed new housing developments around (and even between) the two villages, raised fears that Currie and Balerno risked losing their unique identities—becoming little more than dormitory suburbs of the Scottish capital.

Thirdly, having seen at least one locally-organised event cancelled due to a lack of public awareness (an Easter Dance, organised by the Balerno Gala Committee), a small group of local residents agreed that there was clearly a need for some kind of 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, edited and compiled by Balerno resident Graham Priestley—with the help of Jim Sheach, Tina Harkess, Ray Smith, Mel Young, and Moira Young. Copies of the A4-sized “paper” were delivered free, by hand, to a significant proportion of households in both villages.

This was, however, an unavoidable one-off; a means of introducing the publication to as many people as possible. From its second issue, the paper began to “earn its keep” with a cover price (originally 5p), being sold through a 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”. He would be proved right, of course, but it wasn’t always plain sailing during the months and 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 already quite high.

The Threat of Closure…

Like most other community newspapers before and since, Currie & Balerno News genuinely faced closure on numerous occasions. Inevitably, this was down to there seldom being – despite appearances to the contrary – a sufficient numbers of volunteers able to commit the necessary time to keep things going.

Quite possibly, without Graham Priestley’s particular enthusiasm and tenacity, Currie & Balerno News might well have folded after two-to-three years—just like many other volunteer-run community news titles across the country.

Yet, one issue’s dire front page warning of impending closure was invariably followed the following month by the news that someone had stepped forward – usually at the last moment – to keep things going. As the years became decades, it’s fair to suggest that Currie & Balerno News became a sufficiently established operation that it not merely survived, but 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 sufficient volunteers for the August issue during previously-booked summer holidays in July clearly proved far too stressful. It never happened again. From 1977 onwards, summers have been marked by increasingly “bumper” July/August editions.

In contrast, issues of Currie & Balerno News continued to appear every January, despite this requiring their volunteer-intensive production, printing, and distribution (see below) to be squeezed 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 December and January. Since 1988, Currie & Balerno News has published 10 monthly issues each calendar year, with the July/August and December/January editions marking the paper’s “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 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.”

This explained, Graham suggested, why relatively few community publications survived for more than a couple of years. (Those which did, usually lasted for many years.) Even by 1996, Currie & Balerno News had outlived several contemporaries across Edinburgh, and would continue to outlive several more—including publications which had supposedly enjoyed the financial support of the council-funded Edinburgh Community Newspaper Trust.

As an example, Graham highlighted the 1975-launched Tollcross & District News, which had been a particular 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) 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 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 “as usual” during the coronavirus-inspired lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. The publication is also now free to pick up or download.

Not Just About Currie and Balerno…

Currie & Balerno News began as a 10 page, A4-sized title with what might be charitably described as a “home-made” feel—arguably best represented by its original, partly-hand-drawn logo.

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

The present C&B News team are thankful for one particular decision made by their predecessors back in 1979—choosing NOT to update the paper’s name. Instead of rebranding the paper as Currie, Balerno & Juniper Green News, the masthead was instead modified to include a subheading listing the additional neighbourhood(s) the paper now covered. 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?

Preparing for the Printer…

As previously mentioned, C&B News was launched at a time when new “photographic” alternatives to hot metal typesetting were making periodical publishing somewhat easier, less expensive and more accessible. Nevertheless, during its earliest years, production of C&B News remained both time-consuming and volunteer-intensive.

Initially, all articles had to be gathered together (with any hand-written submissions typed up) before being sent off for typesetting. Any submitted photographic prints also needed to be scanned by the printer—at an individual cost, which initially limited the number of photographs included in each issue.

Then, over the course of several evenings, the committee (under the supervision of the editor/coordinator) had to physically “cut ‘n’ paste” (using scissors and glue) all the resulting long strips of text, and scanned photographs, onto the set number of page templates. These were then delivered to the printer.

Production & Distribution…

Yet more volunteers would then help fold and collate the thousands of resulting A3 sheets, compiling the completed copies. These were distributed (again, by volunteers) to participating retail outlets.

It was the paper’s seventh editor, Neil C Scott, who successfully introduced computer-based desktop publishing during the 1990s. Today, the publication’s management committee still remains integral to the paper’s ongoing success—providing editorial and financial direction, contributing articles and ideas, proofing pages, and running the local distribution. However, they are no longer involved in the actual compilation of individual issues; that is now the role of a freelance editor and advertising manager.

Initial compilation, binding and delivery of the finished copies are also now carried out by the printers.

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 downloadable from the C&B News website.

Currently, PDFs of the most recent 10 issues – a year’s run, in other words – can be accessed directly from this website: the current issue from the homepage, the rest from here. 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