Navy News

Navy News

Front cover, December 2009
Type	Monthly newspaper
Format	online and compact
Publisher	Ministry of Defence (UK)
Editor	Mike Gray
Editor-in-chief	Sarah Fletcher
News editor	Richard Hargreaves
Opinion editor	Helen Craven
Founded	1954 (1954)
Headquarters	HMS Nelson, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Circulation	60,000[1]
ISSN	0028-1670
OCLC number	70249744
Official website	http://www.navynews.co.uk

Navy News, the official newspaper of the Royal Navy, is produced by a small team of editorial and support staff and is published by the Ministry of Defence on a monthly basis.

The content of the newspaper is varied, ranging from information for all serving personnel of whatever rank or specialisation to Sea Cadets and former shipmates. Members of the public with an interest in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the Fleet Air Arm also have access to the newspaper.

The newspaper is distributed free to serving personnel (ratio 1:5), whilst worldwide subscribers (8,000+) continue to grow. Sales of the newspaper (30,000+) through newsagents and supermarkets remain constant.

Navy News includes sections on news; special features; sport; book reviews; association news; people; charity work; Fleet Focus (where the ships are deployed); 2-6 (for serving personnel); letters and the very popular noticeboard (on which readers can search for old shipmates, notify deaths and reunions or ask a question).

In 1998 it was decided to create a website and it has been running ever since. It always includes a daily (weekdays) news story as well as notifying readers about reunions; people searches and other features.

In April 2007, the first free digital edition of Navy News was launched on the website and each edition since then has appeared giving free access to readers worldwide. In recent weeks, new features have been added and further are planned.

Another popular innovation is the recording of sections of the Navy News, read by some of the editors, initially recorded on to 90 minute tapes, but now recorded digitally onto memory sticks with no restriction on length of time. This is then distributed by the Portsmouth Area Talking News to visually impaired persons for free, through the ‘Articles for the Blind’ scheme all over the world.

History

The paper was founded in 1954 (with £300 from the then Victory Barracks (now HMS Nelson) pigswill fund, the proceeds of 'gash' food from the mess sold to local farmers!) purely to serve the Portsmouth Command, after all Plymouth had its own ‘Guzz Gazzette’ and Chatham had its own ‘Chats’. Within a few months Navy News’ success allowed it to expand to cover the whole of the Senior Service. Today it is estimated to have more than 100,000 readers worldwide probably many more, as there is of evidence of how individual copies are passed around whole ship's companies, ex pat communities and ex Service associations who use its columns to keep in touch with present developments and old shipmates.

Not to mention wives and families and, most of all perhaps, people who are just interested in the Navy and what it does.

The circulation has remained surprisingly buoyant over the past 20 years or so, during which time it was expected to see a big decline through 'natural wastage' and the fact that the actual serving strength has reduced by almost 50 per cent in the same period. Navy News is obviously drawing in new readers. Perhaps this is a reflection of the increasing trend towards short-term careers in the RN. Maybe those who return to civvy street soon start remembering their time spent in a blue suit with affection and turn to Navy News to renew their ties with the people who informed their most formative years.

Embassy attachés and media correspondents scan its pages, regularly picking up items they have missed through official lines of communication. There have been some notable scoops over the years including the cancellation of the rum issue ordered by First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Michael 'Dry Ginger' Le Fanu in 1970 and the demise of the WRNS as a separate arm of the Naval Service in 1993.

Each edition of Navy News is produced in full-colour and comprises between 44 and 60 pages. The newspaper is published on the first of each month and the production run is around 60,000 copies monthly.

Awards

Since it first entered the Communicators in Business (formerly Editing for Industry) competition the biggest of its kind in Europe in 1972 Navy News has collected 117 awards. The Navy News has also won the Plain English Award on three occasions.

See also

RAF News

Notes

1. ^ About Navy News