My 55 years in journalism: the last chapter

Nub News editor Philip Evans continues his series looking back over his 55-year career in journalism, many years of which have been spent covering East Devon.

Timing can mean everything when launching a business. And it can be argued with some justification that the early 2000s was probably not the best time to be launching a newspaper group with the credit crunch just around the corner.

But that's what I did. To be fair, I didn't have much option. As explained in my last episode, having returned from London and running Pulman's Weekly News as a freelance for six years, breathing life back into this old and much-respected title, owners Tindle Newspapers decided to take the title in-house and I was left without a job. My option was to return to London or go it alone.

So I decided to launch a new free newspaper, initially for the Axe Valley but expanding into East Devon, South Somerset and West Dorset.

We started with three titles and five employees and over the next 13 years we increased the number of editions to 12, ultimately employing about 30, and set up a production department providing pre-press services for other publishers and graphic design services.

Looking back on it, I don't know how we stayed in business so long, as not long after we launched the regional press went into a downward spiral with advertising revenues – the sole source of income for free newspapers – declining year-on-year by as much as 30 per cent.

This is the last episode in 'My 55 Years of Journalism' series and the most difficult to write because the demise and ultimate closure of View From Newspapers is still very raw from my own point of view, despite the fact it was nearly four years ago that my dream finally petered out.

The company changed hands three times during those days to stay trading and my wife Jackie and I worked seven days a week without a break in the early days, during which time we both suffered serious illness.

In building the business to a £1million turnover, which we achieved, we would take on any work that came our way in addition to the weekly publication of all our titles.

One example of how keen we were to establish a reputation that we were the 'go-to company' for other publishers if they needed help comes to mind.

I got a call from one of the leading regional press operators asking if I could put a team together to produce a daily newspaper for the Local Government Association's annual conference in Harrogate. Typically, I immediately said yes.

This involved packing into my car three Apple Mac computers and three members of staff – my deputy editor James Coles, reporter Alex Alexander and photographer Richard Austin. Our brief was to produce an eight-page tabloid on each day of the conference, which was printed overnight and then popped under delegates' bedroom doors early the next morning.

This was July 2005 and clashed with the announcement that the UK would stage the next Olympics in 2012 and the 7/7 bombings in London. The key speaker at the conference was the charismatic Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, so one thing was certain, we would not be short of copy. It was almost like editing a national newspaper.

Even with our antiquated computer equipment, we met our deadlines and produced three very creditable papers. The publisher that put their confidence in us was delighted and afterwards revealed that they could not get anyone else in the country to take on such an ambitious project.

Taking on such a project was typical of my staff's attitude and there were a number of times that we bailed out other publishers, which required us working through the night.

I even said yes when a small American newspaper enquired whether we could produce their pages overnight. I had be talked out of that one as it would have meant working through every night!

A big blow, however, was when our bank withdraw our overdraft (which we never exceeded) without telling us and I had to seek investors. No money changed hands but we were able to keep the staff which became my one and only focus as trading became even more tough due to the financial climate.

It could have been so different when a West Country publisher was keen to acquire us. We were within four weeks of being sold for £4million when my wife and I owned 60 per cent of the shares.

I had to take on additional work in London to help keep our heads above water. This was probably a mistake as I should have been concentrating on doing more at View From and not working 70 hours a week.

Ultimately, it ended up with another company acquiring View From and then selling it on. I had agreed with the new owner to work for six months and resigned as managing director exactly six months after giving that undertaking.

I remember well making the announcement at our Christmas lunch, attended by some members of staff who had been with me since day one. There were plenty of tears that day (including some of mine).

I agreed to stay on for a few months on a consultative basis as I was pretty sure View From would finally go out of business in the New Year. It was only a few days into January when the whole staff was put on gardening leave. Two employees of the owners were sent up to Lyme to make the announcement, but as I had employed them all, I felt duty-bound to break the news.

The staff were very badly treated in the weeks and months that followed and it took over two years for them to receive their employment entitlement, thanks to sterling work by my assistant editor James Coles who fought long and hard for the staff to be paid. Pension payments, however, have never been paid to this day.

I look upon James as a second son and I am pleased that he and other View From employees have found jobs locally. It's sad they are not still in the newspaper game. The industry is all the poorer for it.

I still wake up at night beating myself up and asking myself if there was more I could have done to save those jobs.

I could have bought back the company for £1, but I would have needed to find £150,000 for cash flow purposes and to do that I would have to put my house up for collateral. Having long-passed retirement age, I could not take the risk of putting my family home on the line.

So, for the second time in not so many years, I found myself without work. My wife and daughter Francesca were also in the business so we came up with the idea of launching LymeOnline, a fortnightly newspaper just for Lyme Regis, Uplyme and Charmouth, with complimentary website. We did it within a month.

I've launched more than 60 publications in my career, but LymeOnline is by far the most popular. However, it will never make money; we run it as a community non-profit-making project and as a family we don't take a penny from it.

The days of small towns like Lyme having its own newspaper are long gone. We also offer production services to other newspapers, which keeps the wolf from the door.

Those of you who are reading this will know that Francesca and I now also provide the editorial content for Axminster and Seaton Nub News, part of a network of nearly 70 hyperlocal news websites across the country. A new kind of local newspaper which is proving to be very successful and is more than plugging the gap left by the View From.

So whilst I'm not working 70-hour weeks any more, I'm still fully occupied - 55 years on from my first job in journalism, looking after the commercial side of LymeOnline. Francesca edits the title and I am full of pride for the manner in which she has stepped up to the plate.

Thank you for all the kind messages from those of you who have been reading this series. I am often asked if I plan to write a book of all my exploits in the newspaper game. Well, you know, I just don't have the time… but who knows?

Copyright Philip Evans