Celebrating the first edition of Connected

Mothers’ Union’s new membership magazine Connected came out at the beginning of April, just after Easter. The driving force behind the new publication was a need to keep members in Britain and Ireland ‘connected’ by ensuring they were informed and up-to-date on the wider movement.

Part of the production process involved gathering thoughts and opinions from a number of members which we did using focus groups over zoom. The meetings were fruitful and gave us a good idea of what was required between the pages. This included a mix of news about our work worldwide and in the UK and Ireland, faith-based articles, news about policy and advocacy, info on upcoming events, appeals and fundraising. 

We have done our best to produce content in line with those requests as much as possible in the 54  page magazine. Inserts, including the Praying With Purpose supplement, were included for members who don’t have access to the internet.

Good Reviews

As with any new publication we recognise that we may not have things exactly right first time around, which is why we welcome constructive criticism. All of your feedback  is much appreciated and we can use it to take the magazine forward with input from you as members.

Several of you  wrote in to say you enjoyed reading it and comments included “it covers all the news we need”, “very good and interesting content” and “interesting and uplifting articles”.

One member got in touch to say: “It really made me feel connected to all our movement”, which was the main intention behind the new publication, and one we want to carry on with going forward.

Teething Problems

It is also very helpful to hear what we could to do better and how this magazine can be improved to better serve the movement. To this end, we are grateful for comments relating to the issues some members had. An example of one such comment was: “A great new magazine but some of it so difficult to read; namely white print on a pastel coloured background.”

Unfortunately, there is only so much we can do to respond to this particular point. Vibrant colours bring life and vitality to otherwise plain pages. However, we can say that we designed the magazine with a balance of engaging design and readability in mind. Further to this, more than 50 percent of the articles are black type on a white background which takes that into account.

Alternatives to Reading

We will have a CD of a selection of Connected articles available for the next edition of the magazine, coming out in October, for members who are blind and partially-sighted.  This is provided as an alternative to the printed magazine, and it does not contain the content of the entire magazine.

We are also excited that you can read the magazine digitally, currently via a third party platform but eventually we plan to embed the publication in our own website, which will increase readership and raise awareness of Mothers’ Union’s work to end poverty, violence and injustice.

Overall, the first edition of any new publication will always have initial teething problems but we can work together in the knowledge that we have laid the groundwork for something special. 

We look forward to producing the next edition of Connected to arrive with you in October and will continue to bear your comments in mind.

Click here to read the first edition online as a digital flipbook.

Cover Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash