Cradley Mathon Storridge
Newsletter

The Newsletter is a monthly publication which aims to keep people in the three parishes of Cradley, Mathon and Storridge informed about local events and activities and other matters of interest.  In one form  or another it has been in existence for over 100 years, but more of the history later.  The local churches feature prominently along with regular updates from Cradley school, the surgery, British Legion events, parish councils and of course the WI’s in Cradley and Storridge. 
All this depends on our contributors – anyone and everyone is welcome to submit items for publication. The majority of the content of the Newsletter comes from people in the village who want to share news about past and future activities. An easy way to submit material is through the contact button on our website – that goes straight to our inbox.
The process of producing the Newsletter and getting it delivered to your door - in normal times - or on line involves a large team of local people who are all volunteers. The team has around 30 members in various roles but it all starts with the contributors who email articles in to us or put them in our mailbox at the Butchery.
The editors look through the articles, amending them where necessary, and they pass them on to the compilers. They have the job of fitting the whole complex jigsaw together so that the finished issue looks attractive and easy to read. There are currently three editors and three compilers on the team, all taking it in turn to produce the Newsletter so that we can spread the load throughout the year.
An essential part of the Newsletter is advertising, both because it is important for us to offer a platform to local businesses to make customers aware of what they have to offer and because the revenue from advertising helps to keep this tiny, not for profit, enterprise afloat.  A team of two is responsible for working with the advertisers to produce their adverts, organise them onto the printed page and take care of the invoicing.
When each issue is complete we hand it over to the printers, Aspect Design in Malvern. They do a great job for us, producing the finished copies quickly and efficiently so we can move them on to the distribution team, who between them collect about 600 copies from the printers and get them around the villages to the final link in the chain – the volunteers who in rain or shine collect annual subscriptions and put each month’s issue through subscribers’ letterboxes.
Our treasurer has the task of banking the income and ensuring that our invoices, principally for printing costs, are paid on time.
At every stage of the process we would welcome more volunteers to help with producing the newsletter so if you have some time to spare and would like to get involved please get in touch through the contact button.
Regular readers will know that we feature items from the Newsletter over 100 years ago so it has been a part of village life for a long time. We are currently looking into its history and would welcome any information or recollections. In recent times the Newsletter owes its very existence to Chris Hook who edited it month in month out for over 20 years until he decided to take a breather and hand it over to the current team in 2017.