Editorial: Time to hand the community news baton on

ALL GOOD THINGS come to an eventual end – and often they are replaced by more good things, well at least that is the hope of this Community News Editor.

That is why I have decided to make an announcement on the future of our site today, well in advance of the major change I have planned – in the hope that will allow the service to continue in some form – perhaps taking it far beyond what has already been achieved.

On May 25 next year I will officially ‘retire’ – that is reach the required state pension age and finally get my reward for 50 years continuous work in some form or other. One week later, on May 31, I will either close insideMORAY or formally place the site in new hands.

Now I know that this will appear like the longest goodbye in history – but I need to ‘declare’ for the sake of site sponsors who have so kindly allowed me to keep this all going in the last few years.

I started insideMORAY with a first probing post on June 23, 2013 – almost five years ago. In the years since I’ve battered out literally millions of words, approaching 7600 articles – it will be over 8000 by the time I finally give the keyboard a rest.

What I would very much like to do is pass the baton on to a person or group or organisation that understands the community news concept and is prepared to take it on – and perhaps take it into new directions that I could never achieve.

So if you have a mind to do that – perhaps a school, college, community organisation or group – then please get in touch and let’s talk. The site is NOT for sale, it will be passed on free of any charges or liabilities.

I have also been in discussion with a few sponsors who have very quickly picked up four of the five monthly site sponsorships available from January to May – only one remains. I will also continue to operate the ‘partnership’ plan until the end of May – so if you are interested in either, let me know.

And, of course, if you have a plan to continue insideMORAY beyond May, please do get in touch – Email address for both is editor@insidemoray.news