Forres Web is now Forres Local

Forres Web has changed its name to Forres Local.

And to mark the change, we have launched a bright new website.

The new name will better represent what we stand for and where we are going.

Particularly, it highlights that we are not just a website any more. We have recently acquired the rights to the very popular A5 magazine Forres Focus, and will continue to publish this as a printed companion to the website, and this too will change its name to Forres Local and launch with a new design in April.

The nature of the website has always been ‘local’ and since 2000 it has focussed on listing local businesses, community groups and events, and that won’t change.

In October last year we started providing local news in the form of written articles on the website, video interviews and links to other news sources.

We are now using social media more actively to distribute information and news about the things that are going on in the town.

As a result, traffic to the website has nearly tripled, and we are expecting it to continue rising. Our videos on Facebook have also been particularly well-received.

Forres Web was set up as a community website more than 19 years ago by Jack MacAllister. Jack built up the website meticulously listing everything he could find out about Forres. It has always been most popular with tourists and visitors looking to find out more about accommodation and things to do, and is in fact recommended by VisitScotland as the local resource for the town.

It is our intention to keep making Forres Local better and better, so your feedback is encouraged. What do you want to see in these pages? We want to strike a balance between providing information for locals and for visitor, and we think it can do both without compromise.

We are incredibly excited that we are now able to bring Forres Local to print. And indeed it is one of the reasons we changed the name of the website. We aren’t just ‘web’ any more and the ‘local’ name will bind the website and magazine together and allow to us explore other ‘local’ collaborations.

The magazine will offer advertising for local businesses, just as the website has done, and still does. We want to fill it with the best local content. There will be interviews with local people and news about the town. We’ll have a list of local events too, and the magazine will be available from local places.

The first issue will have a print run of 4000 and we will distribute all of them. We have approached some outlets and the ‘vibe’ has been extremely positive, they have said they want to see something that is more, well, ‘local’.

We think that our magazine will succeed because of its ‘pick-up’ value. Each cover will have a picture of local interest and feature a local person, and we are guaranteeing that every spread will have editorial content. No wall-to-wall ads! That way, there will be something to make people stop and read, and that’s what makes ads get seen.

If you have any questions or want to advertise on the website or in the magazine, contact Marc Hindley by email on editor@forreslocal.com