March 27, 2012 11.15 am This story is over 143 months old

Council paper scaled back to quarterly mag

County News: The council magazine mailed through to most Lincolnshire households has been scaled back to a quarterly magazine.

West Lindsey District Council leader Burt Keimach (left) and Lincolnshire County Council leader Martin Hill OBE (right) browse through their new magazine

Lincolnshire County Council’s County News publication has been scaled back to a quarterly magazine in a bid to save money.

The 24-page magazine replaces the newsprint publication which is mailed to most Lincolnshire households.

It will cost the council £50,322 per edition, £342 less than the £50,644 spent last year by Lincolnshire County Council and West Lindsey District Council.

Four editions of the publications per year will be printed, instead of six in 2011 and 10 and 2010, when the cost was £240,000.

To save on production and distribution costs, the council is working with the West Lindsey District Council to add an extra 8 pages for residents in its area.

The council also plans to distribute extra copies of County News to schools and libraries, giving a total distribution of 337,500.

County Council leader Martin Hill said: “Two pages of advertising space are also available in each edition to other public sector organisations such as the NHS, Lincolnshire Police and the district councils, who often find County News the most cost-effective way to communicate with residents.”

New rules for council publications proposed by minister for Housing and Local Government Grant Shapps, indicate appropriate use of publicity would include ensuring publications are not in direct competition to local press and should not appear more than quarterly, with articles directly related to local services.

Source: Lincolnshire County Council