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That was just one of the decisions from a brainstorming day residents and staff held recently in Alton, Hampshire.

Residents came from the south coast and Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire including the New Forest, Surrey and Wiltshire, to represent the magazine’s news teams and our four Area Panels. Five of them had already sat on the interview panel that appointed Workbrands, our new designers.

The Alton day was held in order to make positive decisions about the way forward.

Residents chose what they thought was the best design for the print and online versions of the magazine. They came up with lots of ideas for future articles.

They strongly emphasised that people want to read about what’s going on in their area. They want to read about other residents and their lives. They spent a lot of time with staff thinking about ways to involve more residents.

One suggestion was to have local reporters to feed in stories to the Communication Champions on the Area Panels. If they could write a story, that would be great but if writing wasn’t a reporter’s ‘thing’ then they could always alert the champion with some bullet points.

If you’d like to be a local reporter - or have an idea for a story - contact Michael Luckie, Editor, for more information. His direct line is 023 8062 8158. He’ll call you back if you’re on a mobile. Or email Michael at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it