When we chose the name For A Change, nearly 20 years ago, we were pleased with the pun. It expressed our aim, and subject matter, but also the fact that we were offering our readers something different - a bit of hope.
From the outset we decided to focus as much on what was going right in the world as on what was going wrong - an approach valued by the long-standing reader who tells me that he keeps the magazine by his bed to cheer him up.
As an editor since the beginning, I am passionate about what For A Change stands for. It's been a privilege and challenge to write about people of faith and courage in all corners of the world: pioneers of change in South Africa, taxi-drivers fighting corruption in Brazil, community-builders in Britain's inner cities, peace-workers in conflicts around the globe, artists, dissidents and statesmen from many countries. And it's been a joy to hear from readers who have found these stories an inspiration in their own lives.
And so it's sad to announce that we will be closing at the end of 2006 - and a surprise, for me anyway, to feel so at peace about it. There is a sense, with different staff members moving on to new things, that we have come to one of those natural ending times, a change of season.
Over the last 19 years, the world of publishing has changed. In 1987, we didn't even have a fax machine, and I remember one of my colleagues spending a day struggling to establish electronic contact with Canada. Articles, and photographs, arrived by post. Our early issues were designed on paper, rather than a computer screen. Today the IT revolution has speeded everything up, and opened new editorial and production possibilities. As we close, an international group is coming together around the concept of a new publication which will appear in both electronic and print form, for launch during 2007. We hope to give you more information about this in our final issue, dateline December/January 2007.
Meanwhile, we have three more issues to go. We hope to make them the best yet.
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