I am delighted to welcome you to the October edition of Am Pàipear, my first as Editor!
My connection with Am Pàipear goes back to before I was even born, when my dad, Gerry MacLeod, made the same commute from Lochboisdale to Balivanich in the early 80s as I make now.
Mairi, our Admin Assistant, remembers sitting with him for lunch when she worked for the Council and the Am Pàipear office was right next door.
I was raised in a very politically aware household, which all those who knew my dad would not be surprised to hear!
From a young age I interacted with politicians, signed petitions and strived to learn as much as I could.
Fast forward a few years and eighteen-year-old me was packing my things and heading to the mainland to study Journalism at the University of the West of Scotland.
The prevailing attitude at the time was that you must go away to gain an education, not that you could have kept teenage me here without sampling a taste of the city!
After almost a decade; quite a few moves; getting married; the pandemic and the sad loss of my dad in January 2020, it was time to come home.
My husband and I quit our jobs and sold most of our things and, after a summer of touring the UK in a tiny 3 door Chevy Aveo, we landed back in Lochboisdale.
Since coming home, I have experienced and achieved things that I deemed almost impossible in my life on the mainland.
I gave having my own business a try, I went back to college to study art at the University of the Highlands and Islands and became a working artist, I recently took part in the filming of an episode of Jules and Greg’s Wild Swim (airing in January!) and I was able to do the thing that teenage me was convinced was not possible in Uist: getting a job in the industry in which I was trained.
“Print is dead” is a sentence I have heard since before I even sat in my first Newswriting class 12 years ago.
Across the globe, local newspapers are disappearing.
A report by the Charitable Journalism Project suggested that Britain has fewer local newspapers now than at any other time since the 18th Century.
Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) has conducted research into local news across the UK and mapped out areas of news “deserts, oases and drylands” and the results make hard reading.
In our current age of digital dependency, we often make the mistake of believing anything we could possibly want or need to know will be presented to us through our phones without really having to look for it.
A reliance on receiving our news via social media or major newspapers can lead to being exposed only to the big stories, those that affect all your fellow human beings, and can often miss the seemingly small issues affecting your immediate community.
PINF say on their website:
“We need vibrant local news to create pride in place and ensure that local power responds to the concerns of local people.”
My predecessor, Mel, took the helm at a time that looked dangerous for the paper’s future. There was no Editor, and the only other reporter was already due to move on to another job.
Mel grabbed the reins and got the paper back on track. She tackled the issues that would not have received attention otherwise, trawled through meeting papers and minutes to get the important information to you and secured funding that allowed Fiona and I to join the team and, hopefully, give the paper a more definite future.
Local journalists are jack-of-all-trades types.
One morning you might be intensely discussing local authority decisions then, in the afternoon, you’ll have to learn all about coastal erosion.
It’s an intense but rewarding job that I feel privileged to be able to do.
Am Pàipear can shed light on the issues that affect Uist, from Government funding to climate change action, from crofting to the arts and from healthcare to Gàidhlig.
Your local newspaper advocates for you and keeps you informed.
Our drive is to serve our community and give them the knowledge and power they need to be able to make decisions and take action.
Fiona and I are proud to put our years of study and practice in Gàidhlig and journalism, respectively, to good use in our writing for the paper.
We are also active in our communities by being members of Community Councils, various committees and focus groups.
Fiona has been an active participant in the formation of the Plana Gàidhlig Uibhist (which you can read more about on page 4) and leads activities for children in Gàidhlig through her role with Comunn na Gàidhlig.
I have been a member of the Lochboisdale Community Council since the beginning of this year, helped to organise the South Uist Highland Games with the rest of the incredible committee, have advocated for the continuation of art education in North Uist when UHI was considering removing a course.
I’ve written extensively about the reduction in air service to Stornoway and the difficulties locals face in accessing health care and I strived to give our readers the knowledge they needed to make the best decisions for themselves during the General Election this summer.
This is what local news is all about, tackling the issues that the big guns might not even know about.
But it’s not always doom and gloom.
It’s also about celebrating our fellow islanders and all that they achieve.
Among us we have award winning artists, singers, writers, musicians, athletes and academics.
I am very proud to be a small part of the history of our humble local newspaper and hope to do the best job I can to represent my fellow Uibhisteachs.
