Happy 100th issue

In celebrating Village Eye’s tenth year and 100th issue, Editor, Hellen, and her longstanding co-worker, Jackie, have - unsurprisingly - been sharing the story of how the magazine came to be, and the obstacles and triumphs experienced along the way, with our newest recruits.

It dawned on us that this story of a young mother of three, starting a business from scratch around her family and building it into a sizeable business, employing local people, really is quite an inspirational story. And because it’s quite an inspirational story, we thought that you, our readers, would like us to share it with you, too!

So come with us down memory lane as we relive the highs, the lows, the blood, sweat and tears - and the belly laughs - that went into the making of Village Eye magazine. Our journey starts back in 2011 when the News of the World phone hacking scandal was hitting the headlines and ‘Kate & Wills’ tied the knot at Westminster Abbey. Meanwhile…

2011:

Hellen (wife, mum of three and an outsourced marketing manager) sat scratching her head. She’d just had a conversation with one of her clients, Spratley’s of Mortimer, about different ways of getting their business and other local businesses - in front of local customers. Julie Spratley jokingly suggested “You should think about launching a magazine…” After tossing and turning that night, Hellen couldn’t sleep, mulling over Julie’s remark... “Maybe a decent community magazine might just be what the area needs!? But glossy, like a Sunday supplement, and filled with community information, competitions and articles!” Giving up on a night’s slumber, she got up at 2am and started scribbling. She scribbled designs, calculations and content ideas. By morning, the essence of Village Eye magazine was all there - on three scraps of paper. Her biggest concern was worrying if local businesses would get on board. Hellen says, “I felt like a contestant on the TV show The Apprentice. I spent two full weeks calling and visiting local businesses to pitch them my idea, but it worked.” Lots of the local businesses she spoke to ‘got it’ straight away and could see the benefit of being a part of a high quality local magazine that would go through people’s doors. Testament to its success is that many of them are still advertising today, ten years on!” So, with the first issue printed and delivered, Hellen realised she’d need some help going forward and recruited a right-hand woman, Jackie, and together they started to spread the word.

2013:

Life at the original Village Eye HQ (the converted garage at home in Burghfield Common) was… errr…cosy to say the least. Hellen and Jackie remember those days fondly, but in 2013 a new opportunity arose. Hellen & her husband, Paul, had a contact who was selling a local TV Studio business, which just happened to have a sizeable office attached. Paul was keen to take over the running of the studio and, in turn, this meant that Village Eye would have glorious office space…and room to expand as time went on! It really was an exciting time, packing up and starting a new venture at their new home in Mortimer.

2017

Five years in and Village Eye was going from strength to strength. There have been a few new additions to the team over the years. Some stayed a few years, others a few months, but each of them brought something different, helping to continually build the business and create awareness locally of Village Eye magazine. In fact, by 2017, the team had started to receive emails and phone calls to ask ‘Why don’t we get it?’ ‘When are you going to deliver here?’ After some more scribbling of calculations, Hellen decided to take the leap and increase distribution to a whopping 11,500 homes and distribute to 17 different local villages which, considering Village Eye started life producing just 6,000 copies each month to three villages, this really was an impressive step and one that demonstrated Hellen’s confidence and belief in the magazine.

2019

Launching a second (and third, and fourth…) magazine had always been the longterm plan and it was in 2019 that the duo felt ‘in the right place’ to start the process. Drum roll please….enter Lindsey Barker! Many of our advertisers will know Lindsey now because she is often first point of call. She joined the team to focus on sales for Village Eye’s new 18,000 drop area (Earley & surrounds which launches this July) but was quickly commandeered for all sorts of other tasks, including bringing our social media up to scratch! Her energy and enthusiasm were just what Village Eye needed to be able to launch into a new area. Then 2020 happened and all plans were put on hold...

2020

COVID. Need we say more. Like many other local businesses, we were hit hard but, with the support of our regular advertisers, we managed to pull through. Running the magazine during the pandemic was, at times, a bit like ‘pushing water uphill with a rake’ but we managed to continue producing quality, uplifting magazines every month (except for our May 20 issue which was published online). Plans for Village Eye’s ‘Earley & surrounds’ edition were understandably pushed back slightly, but Hellen continued with her recruitment of a Junior Designer, so that we would be ready to launch the new edition when the time was right. And that Junior Designer is the lovely Holly who brings a fresh perspective to our magazine and adds a lovely vibe to the office.

Our first Issue back in 2011!

2021

Over the years, Village Eye magazine has covered everything from Royal visits to oversized pumpkins. “It is an absolute privilege to be ‘in the loop’ and pulling back the covers on an ‘ordinary’ cluster of villages to discover so much community spirit, talent and achievement,” says Hellen.

It is also such a privelege to have helped nearly 1000 local businesses to grow, get more customers and, more recently, to have given them a helping hand through what can only be described by local small firms and enterprises as the toughest time imaginable. It has been a pleasure to have been able to provide a proven platform to small businesses to be able to advertise their services both in print and via our social media reach, they tell us they’ve really valued our support.

Over the years, the magazine has played its part in helping to publicise 100s of local events too - including the launch of Burghfield’s beer festival ‘Burghfest’ (which, is actually happening and returning this year! YESSS). We’ve also had a hand in bringing you up to speed with the BoxKart Bash, the local Red Bull-style Soap Box race (not running this year, but it will be back in 2022!), festivals, fetes, fairs, concerts, parties and community events. In our recent survey, we learned that 94% of respondents said they’d attended a local event because they’d read about it in the Eye!

Charity has always played a major part in the magazine’s ethos too. Every month, we are keen to give a voice to as many charities and local causes as possible. To date, the charities and fundraising efforts we’ve supported in our community has run into the £100s and this is very definitely something that we shall always do. Hellen also dons her elf costume every year in support of the Santa’s annual ‘Santa Cruise’.

If we told you that she regularly dresses up as a bunny to dish out Easter eggs at the Mortimer Easter Egg Hunt, turns up to the office every May 4th as Princess Leia ‘just because’, or spent every Sunday during lockdown sporting a different wacky costume (apparently, she now owns 109 different costumes) to co-host the VE Virtual quiz which we broadcast to entertain our readers, you will get a sense of her penchant for fancy dress, energy, fun and her support of the community as a whole.

And it all seems to be paying off. With three awards already under our belt, the team here at Village Eye magazine have just learned that we’re finalists in the Town & County Business Awards 2021 too - as a Berkshire Business Champion! Keep everything crossed for us.

You see, to us, Village Eye has become much more than a magazine. It has become an intrinsic part of the local community and keeps local people in touch with local matters. It also gives our local businesses an opportunity to showcase themselves to potential customers. Please continue to use them - they’ll love you for it :)

So, the next time you pick up a copy and have a flick through, do keep in mind the real, local people bringing you this publication every month with thought, love and conviction. Yes, we know mistakes and typos can occasionally creep in and we don’t always get it spot on, but we really do put everything into it. Saying thank you to you, our advertisers and the wider community doesn’t seem enough - but please know we are forever grateful to you for your messages of encouragement, ideas, comments, contributions and love and support so far. Here’s to the next 10 years!