Public opinion: Your blogs

Thank you, readers: New Start magazine nominated for three national awards

Long standing readers will know of New Start's relaunch in January 2009 from a weekly to a monthly publication. We felt that the magazine should change to reflect our existing and potential readers’ needs now: an in-depth, feature lead publication, rich with learning and best practice content; and that the best way to deliver news was by this website and our hotnews email bulletin.

Our relaunch was supported by Key Fund Yorkshire (New Start is a social enterprise) and you've been giving us excellent and very helpful feedback over the last few months.

We've substantially grown the number of subscribers to the magazine and have created numerous new partnerships with advertisers, meaning the relaunch has taken New Start from strength to strength editorially and commercially.

It's because of our readers' support that we decided to enter this year's national Independent Publisher Awards - and we've scooped three nominations. A celebration of the dynamic contribution, entrepreneurial spirit and achievements of independent publishers, the awards have shortlisted New Start in three categories:

· Re-launch of the year (for the success of our new monthly format)

· Editor of the year – Austin Macauley (for the quality of our editorial content)

· Team of the year.(for our achievements in producing a quality product with a small team, all of whom are actively engaged in our success as a social enterprise and support our values)

We used many comments from existing and new subscribers and commercial partners in our awards entry submissions, and emphasised the role New Start plays not only in writing about making places better but in playing an active part in our sector, and shaping the policy agenda. Being announced as finalists is fantastic recognition from our peers in the worlds of both regeneration and magazine publishing and a real stamp of approval for New Start’s achievements this year and the quality of our editorial content.

The award winners are being announced next week. Thank you, readers, for your support and encouragement!