About the editor
Andy Fraser
Back in the mid-noughties I was a (young!) middle-aged businessman trying to manage commercial stuff in the nuclear engineering industry, going to interesting places across Eastern Europe and Hartlepool*. Then one day I fell off the corporate ladder and into community publishing, swapping suits and my security pass for slippers and a copy of the Bristol A-Z.
Sixteen years on and I can genuinely say there’s not been a single day when I have regretted turning my back on the “corporate world”. Producing something from home that is well respected by advertisers and seemingly loved by local people gives me more job satisfaction than decommissioning an old Bulgarian nuclear power station ever could!
In case anyone is interested, I’ve lived in Bristol for over 30 years — 26 of them in BS9 — but my roots are in Dorset, so I’m a lifelong supporter of AFC Bournemouth through thin and thin. I like to sing (with the local Melody Makers Choir), quiz (compiling and competing), and cook (2018 WoT Village Show men’s chocolate hedgehog cake champion).
I share the house with my wonderfully supportive wife Ruth and our two lockdown kittens Otis and Spud, and have the best ever daughter who lives and works in London.
* Hartlepool is lovely, in case you’ve not been!
The magazines
Print isn’t dead
People still love the tangible feel and smell of the printed word, so it’s a brilliant and trusted way for businesses to get in contact with customers.
Both are free, full colour attractive A5 magazines that contain a mixture of interesting adverts and readable content, all with a decidedly local slant. Their purpose is twofold – a professional and very affordable way for businesses to promote their services and products to the people of north west Bristol, and an informal, informative little read for the people who receive them. The businesses featured are almost entirely based in and around the local area, and most are small concerns who find the cost of advertising attractive compared with bigger publications whose focus is less on community and more on lifestyle.
And the read itself? Well, fire up the latest BS9 or BS6+8 and judge for yourself. I write some of the stuff myself, including compiling the popular prize word-search, general knowledge quiz and local walks, and supplement this with carefully selected articles of interest, again written by local people.
Finally, the magazines contain a large free listings section, to help those people who run clubs, put on shows and concerts and organise charity events, to spread the word about the great things they are up to here in our community.