The Irvinite - In The Beginning

I recall during the latter part of 2007 having a discussion with a few friends of mine who were self-employed with small businesses in the town of Irvine. They were complaining amongst themselves about the rising cost of advertising and began mulling over ideas as to how they could market their chosen line of work. This got me thinking about Irvine's small businesses and the steady decline of our High Street and also the ever growing retail parks with huge impersonal stores popping up on the outskirts of town. These facts made me feel quite sad. Thoughts started to flood my mind of tales my grandparents and parents had told me of local shop keepers knowing you by name and even knowing what you came in their shop for.

I couldn't stop thinking about all of this over the next few weeks and thought there must be a way of helping to keep the small businessman alive and also bring the community together. That is when, "The Irvinite," was born. It started life as a free, A5, glossy community magazine and local business directory. As you can see in the photo to the right, my dog Holly is enjoying the first issue very much! I embarked on this venture not intending to make a fortune, only to make a living and genuinely wanted to offer affordable advertising for local small businesses and encourage the local residents to interact with the publication by sending in everything from recipes to tales of old Irvine. This magazine was for the people, by the people!

Sadly, when the Credit Crunch hit last year, everyone panicked and I found that my advertisers pulled in their purse strings like so many more of us did. I made the difficult decision to put The Irvinite, "On hold". Recently, I have been contemplating ways of bringing The Irvinite back to reach a much wider audience and still keep my magazine's great advertising rates low. There is no better way to do that than via the Internet.