A new look for the New Shetlander

A colourful New Shetlander magazine will hit the shops today, Friday 2nd April, with a new look and in a new size format.

The first issue of 2021 is something of a re-launch, and follows a crisis last year when Voluntary Action Shetland, which publishes the magazine, warned the committee that its future was no longer financially secure.

Since then there have been discussions about how to revamp and promote the magazine, to attract more readers, subscribers and advertisers, while at the same time keeping down on costs.

The outcome is a re-design with a larger, A4 page size. There will now be three issues a year instead of four, with a new magazine every “voar, simmer and yule”.

Financial support came in the form of a grant from Shetland Amenity Trust, negotiated with the trust’s head of development Davy Cooper, who died last week.

The editors and committee are grateful to Mr Cooper and the trust for their recognition of the magazine’s contribution to the islands’ historical, political, cultural and social life.

Co-editors Laureen Johnson and Brian Smith are optimistic about the magazine’s future and the voar edition has a varied range of writers, fact and fiction, prose and poetry.