Upton St Leonards Life is a monthly newsletter distributed free to all houses in the Village, and copies are also available at the church, the shop, the BMI, the Village Hall, the School and the hotels. Its aim is to have items mostly about the Village, its people, what is going on and reports on what has happened.
The idea of a Village newsletter came out of discussions within the Parish Council. Until 2014 the only Village magazine was produced by the Church, which had been going for very many years. In 2014 it was decided to stop production of the Church magazine and replace it with a Village one, with church pages within, hence the additional part of the title: “incorporating Church News”. The first issue of Upton St Leonards Life was September 2014. Having, as it were, initiated USL Life, the Parish Council remains strongly supportive of the enterprise.
Its publication is made possible by an editorial team. At the moment there are 4 editors who take turns producing each issue. They are supported by a team of feature writers and others – their names appear at the end of each issue. There is also a team of distributors who put it through all the doors. Formally, it is produced by a company – Upton St Leonards Life Community Interest Company (CIC), and the company directors form the business team. You can read about the company on another web page.
Advertising brings in the bulk of the income on which the magazine depends. The Parish Council has undertaken to underwrite losses. Occasional special events are organised to raise funds and we do get some donations from individuals from time to time.
We print about 900 copies a month. Nearly 800 of these go to houses and also those church members who do not live in the Village. We estimate the readership is about 2000.