Hunsdon Village News is now Online, too

Over recent years, as subscribers of the Hunsdon Village News have moved out of the village and new people have moved into their homes, we’ve noticed that subscriptions to the magazine have fallen. This follows a national trend in which people are not buying local newspapers – or even the national newspapers – in the way that earlier generations did. Increasingly, people are finding their information online from social media or from dedicated apps or websites provided by media companies. 

Here in Hunsdon, the emergence of the “Hunsdon Hub” on Facebook has provided a source of community information for many. This probably suits a lot of people most of the time, but it’s not actually the most reliable source of local information, it’s incomplete and it’s not particularly easy to navigate. For a start, you need a Facebook account (which not everyone wants). Secondly, Facebook’s algorithms may not choose to show you every entry that appears (that may be a good or bad thing, depending on what is posted!). Thirdly, things that are posted come and go quickly and are not always easy to find later.

Therefore, the Parochial Church Council has decided to create an online version of the Hunsdon Village News to reach a wider readership and provide a community service that is otherwise lacking. This online version is not just a “pdf” of the existing magazine like in some communities. It is a full website, hosting a village calendar and pages of useful information and local contacts along with articles from all the village organisations, notices about upcoming events and adverts for local tradespeople. Because it is a static website, articles are easy to find – you can search by category e.g. church, gardening club etc, or by month, or even by a keyword, e.g. flowers or music. This means that if you’re interested in anything that’s going on in the village, you should be able to find it without any difficulty.

It’s available now at this website address: villagenews.hunsdonchurch.org. You might like to check out the Useful Information page straight away – there you can see when the different bins are being collected or when roadworks are planned!

• All visitors to the site may browse a limited selection of items without restriction, i.e. the Useful Information, Contact and Advertisers pages as well as the general village calendar.
• Between July and December 2025, all the new content is being made available on a trial basis to visitors who register with the site for a “Free” subscription. (Users create an account with the site which allows them to log in with a username and password so they can read the articles and detail about the events. We send registered members a monthly email when new content is published and may send other occasional notifications.)
• Users who wish to read older articles (June 2025 and earlier) will need to register with the site and subscribe to our “Bronze” level (£5 for a year’s subscription, payable online via the site and valid for one year from the date of purchase).
• On 31st December 2025, all Free membership accounts will lapse. They can be renewed, but after this date, most of the content will be restricted to subscribers who pay for their membership (Bronze).

We intend to keep producing the paper copy of the Hunsdon Village News because we know that some people prefer to read paper publications than spend time in front of a screen. However, as well as new subscribers taking advantage of the new online provision, we would not be surprised if some existing subscribers to switch to reading just the online copy.  Explore the new online version today!