PONTEFRACT DIGEST MAGAZINE

Of all the losses the town has sustained over recent times it is doubtful if anything can be as sad as the demise of the Digest Magazine. For almost two and a half years it continued to provide interest and enjoyment to a devoted group of Pontefract people, helping those in more distant lands to keep in touch with the events back home and recalling the many happier times they shared in their younger days. Again, without any token of support from within the local district and never a word of acknowledgement from local governing bodies, it was left to us to produce a magazine that was capable of enhancing the face of the town and promoting it on a wider scale. Over recent times community funding projects have financed local causes to the tune of many thousands of pounds, the benefits of which the majority of local people will never ever see.  However, the demise of the Digest Magazine cannot be attributed in any way to a lack of local community funding because it didn't need it.  It wasn't a lack of financial support that brought about it's demise but a lack of support from the community as a whole.

A magazine dedicated to the town of Pontefract should, you would believe, have been well supported by local businesses, especially as it provided a means for very low-cost advertising.  Out of all the businesses currently operating within the local district, all of which rely on the support of the community, only a very small minority chose to support us in our production of a local community magazine.

I believe that our efforts in supporting the Prince of Wales Hospice, for which we helped to raise over £500, and the fact that we contributed over £400 to the sponsorship of a young girl in Nepal as well as sponsoring a concert by Knottingley Silver Band in Knottingley Town Hall proved how much the Digest Magazine had to offer and what benefits it could have provided for the community as a whole if they had chosen to support us.

However, with a population of approximately 30,000 people it is perhaps a reflection on the community as a whole that we were unable to sell more than 1,200 copies of the magazine through local shops in Pontefract and that figure included 200 copies of the Knottingley and Ferrybridge edition. Even at the nominal amount of £1.00, we found that people were sharing copies between themselves rather than supporting the project by purchasing their own individual copies. As the magazine evolved and we introduced colour covers our readership declined further until there was no profit whatsoever and a decision was made to combine the two magazines into one single issue. After more than four years we had developed the magazine into a 36 page publication with full colour covers and the price was still only a nominal £2.00 per month including delivery to your door. That was in itself a remarkable achievement.

Alas, for the equivalent cost of just 50p per week, the Digest Magazine is now no more. We have heard a number of reasons why individual support for the magazine declined but very few, if any at all, bear any justification. It appears that the underlying reason for the fall in support for the Digest Magazine was that we were asking our readers to do something in order to continue purchasing it.  They had to write in and order it - a task which proved one step too far for many. Yes, there were those who said they couldn't afford £2.00 per month and if that was the case then we fully understand, but to enable us to continue I gave up my job, possible redundancy payment and my car, and yet I continued to provide sponsorship support and give out £15 per month in prize draw vouchers, when my own income was without doubt less than those who wrote in to complain.

There are thankfully a large group of people who did appreciate the Digest Magazine and we would like to thank everyone who did give us their support. We can only apologise to you for not being able to continue but you can rest assured that we did everything we possibly could to try to keep the magazine going. We will treasure the time we were able to spend publishing the Digest Magazine and we hope that the copies you retain will bring enjoyment and enlightenment to your future generations.

Michael Norfolk
16 November 2007

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