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Ex-regional press trio launch monthly magazine

Three former regional press journalists have launched a new glossy magazine in Herefordshire.

Absolute Herefordshire has been set up with the aim of reflecting all aspects of life in the county and aims to appeal to a “broader readership” than existing publications produced by Archant and Newsquest.

The first edition of the free magazine had a print run of 6,000 and was distributed through local businesses and to homes in the county, while an electronic version had more than 3,500 hits.

Herefordshire is already served by a monthly magazine produced by Archant and the Newsquest-owned Hereford Times also produces Hereford Society.

The first edition of the magazine

Editor Bob Calver said: “We believe there is a gap in the market for a quality magazine that reflects all aspects of life in the county and the feedback we’ve had from our first issue certainly supports that view.

“Many county magazines focus on what you might call ‘society’. There is much more to any county – and certainly Herefordshire – than that.

“We have lots of talented and enterprising young people and lots of businesses doing interesting things that don’t get widely reported.

“We’re not going to be afraid, either, to get behind the news and to cover the issues that local people feel to be important. If that means stirring controversy we’ll do that.”

Bob started out as a journalist at Eastern Counties Newspapers, which became Archant, and also worked at Newcastle daily The Journal and then at the BBC for 19 years before leaving to freelance and do teaching.

As well as Bob, the men behind the business are award-winning designer Colin Amos, who was formerly with Northcliffe Media, and John Priebe who launched Hereford’s first free newspaper, Hereford Ad Mag, more than two decades ago before selling it to concentrate on other business interests.

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  • July 2, 2012 at 3:20 pm
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    Good luck – I went down a similar path in January 2011 with The Worthing Journal – hyperlocals embedded in the community are the future of print journalism (but the big publishers don’t get it).

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  • July 4, 2012 at 10:43 am
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    Lovely cover, makes a change from the one big picture with text covering it, dare to be different, smashing idea, looked on Facebook, good varied content, and all produced in the UK. Good luck

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