Rising above…

Reay Neben is the publisher of Rural Living

City Lass

The sun is shining as I write this and, although more rain is threatened, we must make the most of whatever the weather brings. The recent floods have been so devastating across Auckland with parts of Franklin especially hard hit. I feel so sorry for all those farmers and growers who have put so much work into their land only to see crops washed away. There sure has been horrible weather during this ‘so-called’ summer!

The past month has really been very quiet for us as we didn’t want to venture out. However, Brian celebrated a milestone birthday during Waitangi weekend – we went out for dinner with family followed by a lovely lunch with long time friend, Val, formerly from Waiau Pa.

On another note, readers will have noticed Rural Living is now printed on a di erent type of paper and in a slightly smaller size than we used previously. This has been necessitated by huge increases in all paper prices, but there is a definite advantage to the changes too.

After much agonising over the options, we decided we didn’t want to reduce the number of copies we print – and, therefore, the number of readers we reach – and we knew that our wonderful advertisers were not in a position to pay double (or more!) for their advertisements in e orts to cover the extra costs.

The key advantage to our format change is that our new paper is more sustainable; to stay in step with the times, we knew it was time for a change. And, it’s not just our paper that’s ‘greener’ – we’re using cold-set (rather than heatset) printing, which is kinder on the environment, with vegetable based inks. This is perfect for a rural product as it is now totally biodegradable.

The change in paper and printing in general has meant our fabulous artists have been fine-tuning our style somewhat to ensure our content still looks its best while we continue to provide a similar amount of news, entertainment and more for you all to enjoy.

So, despite increased printing costs, we remain able to supply our magazine to Rural Delivery addresses and through well-stocked stands throughout the region. We are still producing an extensively read, local lifestyle magazine for our community with award-winning content and huge support from advertisers and readers.

Reading back, I realise I have rambled on a bit! However, I feel we owe it to everyone to explain why we’ve made such changes. We are not alone as rising print costs are impacting publishers throughout New Zealand and beyond. Some may cut content, some may cut distribution (reach) back to the bone or introduce subscription charges – we prefer to do none of these and simply go greener instead.